More information about the attack on the Nigerian Police’s Adamawa State Command headquarters in Yola on Tuesday night, which resulted in the death of a police inspector, has surfaced.
Daily Trust had previously reported on how numerous gunshots were heard near the state police command headquarters in Adamawa State, sending residents into a state of panic and raising early suspicions of a potential Boko Haram terrorist strike.
Drinking joints, shops and other night businesses were quickly closed as residents called friends and families to confirm their safety and enquire about the incident.
Hours later, a clearer picture began to emerge that soldiers from the 23 Armoured Brigade in Yola accompanied by military equipment arrived at the state police command with an armoured tank and engaged in a gun battle with policemen on duty at the facility.
A witness told Daily Trust that three soldiers had an altercation with policemen who were on stop-and-search duty at Target Junction in Jimeta in the Yola North area and one of the soldiers pulled a jack knife and attempted to disarm the policemen.
This, according to the source, led one of the policemen to shoot the soldier in the leg, leading to the soldiers’ reprisal attack on the police headquarters, during which an inspector, Jacob Daniel, was killed in the crossfire.
One of the policemen who tried to repel the soldiers during the attack said the soldiers deployed a dozen trucks and an armoured tank and opened fire when the police denied them access to the facility.
“At first, we thought it was Boko Haram. It was a rain of bullets, they fired and we returned fire. That was around 11 pm night. In the end, they killed an inspector and took away his rifle”, the source said.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Sulaiman Nguroje confirmed the incident in a statement on Wednesday indicating that the Commissioner of Police, Afolabi Babatola had ordered an investigation into the matter while working with the leadership of the military to resolve it. The statement further indicated that the police would not tolerate attacks on any security personnel in the course of duty. When contacted, the Brigade Commander, Brigadier General Gambo Muhammad told journalists on the phone that soldiers were at the police headquarters to rescue a soldier who was shot and detained by the police.
The police shot at our men at a checkpoint and a soldier was injured. Our soldiers went to rescue him and they (the police) fired at those ones too. But now, everything is calm and normalcy has returned, the commander said.
