Army/Bandit Clash: Police Order Arms Mop Up In Niger

From Saka Bolaji, Minna

The Police in Minna on Tuesday declared that Niger state is neither under any type of siege or invasion as being feared by the people.
Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in the state, DSP Bala Elkana, addressed the press on behalf of his boss who was said to have gone to Abuja to brief the Inspector General of Police (IGP) on the security situation in the state.
The clarification by the police followed the killing of five policemen within a spate of two days and an invasion of five Gwari villages by men of the Nigerian army which has led to the death of 24 people and loss of property worth several millions of naira.
Two of the five policemen killed were by armed men at Talba farm road in the state capital while the remaining three were felled by suspected bandits at Dikko junction in the Suleja local government area of the state.
The arms carried by the policemen were taken away by their killers.
Addressing newsmen the Commissioner of Police Alhaji Zubairu Muazu declared that ‘Niger state is not under siege or invasion by the Army. We are tackling the security situation in the state. The past few days have been very challenging we started with the Army invasion of some villages, later we have five of our policemen killed on duty.”
Muazu however said that the police were not involved in the invasion of the Kpaidna village by the Army, stressing that “From the beginning the police were not involved in the operation; we only joined the operation after we received distress calls from the villagers that they were being attacked by some men in Army uniform.”
As a proactive measure to bring down the crime rate in the state the Police commissioner said that ‘an aggressive patrol outfit tagged ‘operation mop up illegal firearms’ has been launched pointing out that if within the next 14 days people in possession of firearms illegally did not submit them to the police they would be arrested and prosecuted.
In addition the police chief said that all Divisional police officers “have been placed on red alert” adding that “we have pushed out more policemen to streets to help in the ‘stop and search’” introduced while ‘‘office personnel have been reduced by 50% to compliment the field officials.”
Condoling with the families of the deceased policemen, Muazu declared that “the killers of our policemen will never go unpunished.”
In answer to a question the Police chief said the Army had not handed over the 57 villagers arrested to the command but said “we have returned 7 military rifles seen at different locations in the villages to the Army.”