‘How Soldiers Killed Our Man in Bauchi’

Segun Awofadeji in Bauchi

The Bauchi State Police Command has reacted to the shooting at the vehicle carrying policemen at a check point near Panshanu village along the Bauchi-Jos road which resulted in the death of one policeman and the injury of three others on Saturday.

Spokesman of the police in Bauchi State, Haruna Mohammed, while reacting to the incident in a statement issued to journalists yesterday said the police officers were stopped at the road block, searched by the soldiers and were permitted to go contrary to the assertion by the military that the shooting was triggered by their refusal to stop for checking.

“The vehicle was searched and allowed to proceed but all of a sudden, one unidentified soldier attached to the 33 Artillery Brigade, Bauchi opened fire and shot at the bus from the rear glass and escaped. As a result, one Bwala Mohammed, a police constable, died on the spot while three others sustained various degrees of injuries.
According to him, it took the intervention of a combined security forces to restore normalcy in the area as other motorists and pedestrians went on rampage and blocked the road to protest against the soldiers over the obnoxious event.

He stated that the scene was visited by police patrol team led by the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Toro Local Government Area to ascertain the actual cause of the incident, adding that the corpse of the deceased was deposited at the mortuary for postmortem examination while the wounded officers are being treated.