Bandits have killed two policemen in Birnin-Gwari Local Government Area of Kaduna State during a patrol in the area. This came as some of the policemen, who conveyed the bodies of their late colleagues to the command headquarters, killed a yet-to-be-identified woman while protesting the way their colleagues died.
The policemen were killed on Monday in Birnin-Gwari while the woman was killed from a stray bullet yesterday afternoon at the police headquarters in Kaduna. It was learnt that the vicinity of the Kaduna State Police Command Headquarters was yesterday afternoon thrown into confusion when some of the policemen deployed in the Birnin- Gwari area for special operations against bandits terrorising the area, were said to be protesting the killing of two of their colleagues by the bandits.
“The policemen brought the corpses of their colleagues and blocked the road leading to the command and started shooting sporadically in the air
“A woman whose identity could not be established was hit by the bullet and was rushed to the hospital where she died due to excessive bleeding,” a witness said. But reacting to the incident, the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mukhtar Aliyu, said the policemen were mourning their dead colleagues when an accidental discharge occurred. Aliyu said in a statement that the policemen, who brought the corpses of their colleagues, were in deep mourning mood.
He said: “The Kaduna State Police Command wishes to categorically state that on 16/07/2018 about 6.30p.m., a team of police officers on special duty, while on routine patrol at Tabanni village on Birnin-Gwari-Funtua Road, were ambushed and attacked by unidentified armed men. “The police team engaged the attackers in a fierce gun battle and at the end, two of the unidentified gunmen were killed and one AK47 rifle was recovered.”