The Nigerian Army has reacted to the killing of some policemen by its’ personnel on Wednesday.
Troops of 93 Battalion Nigerian Army , Takum shot dead three policemen and injured two others who were attached to the Inspector- General of Police Intelligence Response Team ( IRT) .
In a press statement , Acting Army Director public relations , Colonel Sagir Musa :” Our men exchanged fire with some suspected Kidnappers, who indeed turned out to be men of 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.
” On August 6, 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. The suspected kidnappers numbering about ten and driving in a white bus with Registration number; MUS 564 EU refused to stop when they were halted by troops at three consecutive checkpoints. The flagrant refusal of the suspected kidnappers to stop at the three checkpoints prompted a hot pursuit of the fleeing suspects by the troops. It was in this process that the suspected kidnappers who were obviously armed opened fire at the troops sporadically thus prompting them to return fire.
” In the resultant firefight, four suspects were shot and they died on the spot while four others sustained various degrees of gunshot wounds and two others reportedly got missing. 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.
“However, 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 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.
“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.
“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 investigation 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. Therefore, 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.