The Nigerian army and Police authorities are at loggerheads over the inadvertent killing of four policemen who the later said are mistaken for kidnappers.
On the other hand the police authorities said its men who were shit in crossfire were on a patrol mission when the incident occurred two days ago.
Armed forces spokesperson Sagir Musa, a colonel,in a press statement yesterday,draw the attention of the public to a statement issued by police spokesperson,Frank Mbah,a DSP, on the unfortunate incident which occurred on Tuesday 6th August in which troops of 93 Battalion Nigerian Army Takum pursued and exchanged fire with some suspected Kidnappers who he said later turned out to be an Intelligence Response Team from the Police Force Headquarters Abuja on a covert assignment from Abuja resulting in the death and injury of some members of the Team.
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Said he,”on the 6th of August 2019, the said Nigerian Army troops, while responding to a distressed call to rescue a kidnapped victim exchanged fire with the suspected kidnappers along Ibi-Wukari Road in Taraba State.”
He said the suspected kidnappers numbering about ten (10) and driving in a white bus with Reg No LAGOS MUS 564 EU had refused to stop when they were halted by troops at three consecutive check points adding that the flagrant refusal of the suspected kidnappers to stop at the three checkpoints prompted a hot pursuit of the fleeing suspects by the troops.
He said It was in this process that the suspected kidnappers who were obviously armed opened fire at the troops sporadically, thus prompting the troops to return fire.
According to the military spokesman, in the resultant fire fight, “four (4) suspects were shot and died on the spot while four (4) others sustained various degrees of gunshot wounds and 2 others reportedly missing.”
He revealed that It was only after this avoidable outcome that one of the wounded suspects disclosed the fact that they were indeed Policemen dispatched from Nigerian Police, Force Headquarters, Abuja for a covert assignment.
The release further disclosed that, following inquiries from a Police Station officer who was asked by the commander of the Army troops whether he was aware of any Nigerian Police team being dispatched to operate in the LGA, the Divisional Police Officer of Ibi Police Division responded that he was not informed about any operation by the Nigerian Police Force Headquarters thus lending credence to the distressed call from members of the community that the suspects who turned out to be Policemen on a covert mission were rather suspected kidnappers.
Said he,”this incident is indeed quite unfortunate and could have been avoided through proper coordination and liaison as the Nigerian Police Force are partners in the fight against crimes such as kidnapping amongst myriads of other internal security threats confronting our nation of which the Nigerian Police is the lead Agency.”
The military spokesperson said that ,”In order to avert future occurrences of this nature, the Army Headquarters and the Force Headquarters of the Nigerian Police have agreed to constitute a Joint lnvestigation Panel to be headed by the Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of Criminal Investigation Department, DIG Mike Ogbizi, to jointly investigate and report on the true circumstances surrounding the unfortunate incident.” He declared that, until the Joint Investigation Panel concludes and submits its report, “it will be premature to officially conclude and speak on the real circumstances that caused this unfortunate but very avoidable unfortunate incident.”
