By Ismail Auwal
The former Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Wakili (Rtd), popularly known as Singham during his reign in Kano, has lost his father Alh Buba Turaki.
Buba Turaki was also a retired police officer who served as the head of the Gombe Native Authority (NA) Police, popularly known as ‘Yan Doka,’ from 1954 to 1965. His stint as a dandoka fetched him the name Wakili (a short form of Wakilin Doka).
Turaki was born in 1927. And he schooled in Gombe Elementary School and Bauchi Middle School before joining the Gombe NA as Agric Officer and later joined the NA Police.
He was a contemporary of the late Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero.
Turaki, was said to be a fearless cop and who earned administration for his tenacity to rid Gombe of criminality.
According to Icons and Achievers in Gombe State, Late Buba Turaki Jamnati left the NA Police before the first police reform/conversation and joined the Nigerian Custom Service as a pioneer, participating in the Basic Customs Course in Lagos in 1964.
In 1965, he joined the Nigerian Customs Service as an Assistant Preventive Superintendent. Between 1965 and 1975, Late Buba Turaki rose to the rank of Deputy Preventive Superintendent, Nigerian Customs Service, before retiring from active service.
In 1969, while still serving, Late Buba Turaki attended the Advanced Management Course at the Water Guard Training School in London. He also served in the command of various Customs units, including Lagos in 1965, Kano from 1965 to 1974, Maiduguri from 1967 to 1969, Idireko from 1969 to 1972, Lagos again from 1972 to 1973, Maiduguri again from 1973 to 1974, and Kano again from 1974 to 1975.
Late Buba Jamnati worked briefly in the private sector, Challaram Industrial Limited, Kano, from 1976 to 1994, before returning home to Gombe.
