At least two police officers have been confirmed killed by operatives of the Nigerian Army in a confrontation with police personnel in Taraba State.
The military in a show of force infiltrated the Police Headquarters in retaliation for the alleged stabbing of its personnel by the police and shot about three police officers.
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Eyewitnesses at the scene of the incident say the soldiers came from the road leading to the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the venue of the Taraba State Governorship Election Collation Centre, and started shooting sporadically and deflating tyres of vehicles.
Sighting the confrontation, the police officers on duty took to their heels for safety, while others fired back at the military.
“I was selling food here at the police headquarters, then all of a sudden we saw the military started firing and we had to run for our dear lives,” the resident who identified himself as Punarimam Ibrahim, said.
“We saw a police officer shot and in the pull of his blood. I don’t know if he will survive or not. I never knew I will survive this; I was injured in the process. They came through this road leading to the INEC headquarters.”
Channels Television gathered that vehicles including that of the police commissioner’s convoy were shot and deflated within the premises of the Police Headquarters in Jalingo.
Upon visiting the police headquarters, bullet shells, deflated tyres, broken barricades, destroyed vehicles were seen with police officers in fear of what has befallen them by their sister security agency, the Nigeria Army.
When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Abdullahi Usman, told Channels Television that two personnel of the State Command have been killed with many others injured.
Arising from a closed-door meeting between heads of security agencies at the Department of State Service Headquarters, the Commissioner of Police, Yusuf Suleiman, who read their resolution on behalf of others regretted the incident but assured of discreet investigation to unravel the root cause of the matter.
