Following the killing of three Police officers by soldiers in Taraba State last Tuesday, the Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai, has directed troops on internal security duties to be cautious in their dealings with members of the Police Force. He also admonished travelling military personnel to do so in mufti in order to avoid confrontations with policemen.
The Intelligence Response Team of the Police, led by ASP Felix Adolije, said that it had come under attack from soldiers along Ibi-Jalingo Road while taking a kidnap kingpin, Hamisu Wadume, to the Command Headquarters in Jalingo. Three officers — Inspector Mark Ediale, Sergeants Usman Danzumi and Dahiru Musa, as well as a civilian died, while others sustained gunshot wounds during the incident.
The Nigerian Army had claimed that the soldiers fired at the IRT team because they failed to stop at three checkpoints; but this was dismissed by the Police which demanded the whereabouts of the kidnap suspect who was allegedly set free by the soldiers.
The COAS, in a letter to Army formations nationwide, accused the Police of making inflammatory comments in the social media which he said was capable of inciting the rank and file of the Nigeria Police to “exhibit aggressive tendencies against the Nigeria Army personnel.”
Meanwhile, despite the constitution of a Joint Investigation Panel to probe the incident, the Police has been unrelenting in demanding public answers from the Army over the killing of the officers.
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