Almost a year after the physically-challenged Abdul Azeem Haniff was found stuffed in his septic tank, at Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara, his family has lost hope that police will find his killers even as they live with constant reminders.
Haniff’s daughter Nafeeza says she has received calls about the murder, with the most recent being earlier this year, when a strange man called and asked if she wanted to know who killed her father. She told the caller that she wanted to know nothing before quickly ending the call. Since then, the stranger has not called back and she has not heard anything else from the police about the case.
Police officials told this newspaper that there has been no new information that the police can work with that could lead to any arrest and Nafeeza told Stabroek News that she did not report the strange call to them. She explained that she had heard “dat de matter called off” and as a result she felt that it did not make much sense to report the strange call to the police. According to her, since then she had taken steps to prevent a reoccurrence. She explained that that call was among many others.
Nafeeza maintained that “this is the end of the matter,” while adding that she is in disbelief that it is almost a year since her father was killed.
Police officials, however, told this newspaper that the case remains open and if investigators stumble upon any new leads they will be investigated thoroughly.
Around midnight on June 28, 2011, Haniff’s relatives and neighbours were awakened by shouts of fire. They formed a bucket brigade and managed to quell the blaze, but a search of the burnt building only revealed that Haniff was gone. During a subsequent search of the property, his body was found in the septic tank.
Based on the information gathered, the perpetrators entered the home of Haniff through a back window. After strangling him they dragged him to the septic tank, threw him inside and covered the lid. He lived alone.
It would appear that they then returned to the house, locked the doors and set the bed and two sofas on fire before exiting through the same window. Crime Chief Seelall Persaud had said that investigators had been told that Haniff had links to “stolen property.” A relative of the man later accepted this statement, while pointing out that in the past persons had accused Haniff of having their property.
Persaud explained that the man might have been killed by someone he was in business with before, but he pointed out that police have received no new information “for a while now.”
To date, police have also not identified a woman that Haniff was friendly with and who might have been the last person to see him alive. From all indications, he had been friendly with the woman for some time. Nafeeza, who left the woman with her father the day before his body was found, had told Stabroek News that she had not seen the woman before.
After the murder, Nafeeza moved into the house with her family. She said that although there are houses in proximity, no one has come forward to tell her anything about what they might have heard or seen about her father’s murder. “Somebody in hey know something,” she was adamant, while noting that she has even dreamed of her father telling her the details of his own murder, except for the identities of his killer. Haniff’s 86-year-old mother, who lives next door, is now aware that he is dead. Relatives kept his death from her, fearing that it would take a toll on her. Nafeeza said that one day while she was talking to the woman, she unexpectedly disclosed the details of the murder. Nafeeza said too that her oldest child, who is four years old, constantly tells her that her grandfather was killed and placed in a septic tank.
The woman stated that her father’s death came as a shock to her, especially since she only visited him the day before his body was found. She had not seen him for seven months at that point. She recalled how she washed and cleaned for him that day.
Haniff, years before, sustained an injury which rendered him paralyzed from the waist down. He did, however, try to move around with the aid of crutches. He stayed at home and started buying and selling livestock to support himself.
