Following a fight in Yola, the capital of Adamawa State, between some officers and members of the Nigeria Police and the military, a police inspector lost his life.
Inspector Jacob Daniel was named by the police as the deceased; he passed away during the altercation between the two security services.
Yola residents awoke on Wednesday morning to conjectures of an assault on the headquarters of the Adamawa State Police Command; however, accounts of the division between the two security services varied.
People who claimed to be aware of the circumstances indicated that some military personnel brought a patient to the Jimeta, Yola, Police Clinic, but were not allowed access due to their heavy weaponry. As a result, the soldiers stormed the police headquarters.
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Many people were awakened from their sleep by the deafening sound of gunfire, according to a resident living near the Command headquarters.
The Adamawa State Police Command headquarters are situated in the centre of Yola, the state capital, about a kilometre from Government House, the residence and office of the state governor. The Police Roundabout is a prominent area of Yola.
The attack’s facts were summarised in versions of the narrative around daybreak, but the specifics and the perpetrators’ identities remained mostly unknown.
But the state Police Command reacted, acknowledging that its agents and military officials had clashed and regretting that a police officer had made the ultimate sacrifice.
In a press release, the state’s commissioner of police, CP Afolabi Babatola, stated that the “recent conflict between Police and Military Officers” began at Target Junction in Jimeta and escalated to the attack on the police headquarters, which is roughly two kilometres away.
The confrontation at Target Junction “resulted in an exchange of fire and brutal attack on the Police Facility (command headquarters) and killing of Inspector Jacob Daniel,” according to a news release issued by SP Suleiman Nguroje, the spokesperson for the Command.
In the statement, Nguroje added that in order to maintain justice and peace, the CP had mandated an immediate probe.
The Command regards the lives of all security personnel as sacred, and the CP issued a warning that attacks on any security officer while they were performing their duties would no longer be allowed under any circumstances. Any unjustified conflict would also be dealt with rigorously in compliance with the laws now in place.
“The top management of both security agencies is taking all legal action to address the situation,” the police said, pleading for calm.
Brig General Gambo Muhammad, the Commander of the 23 Armoured Brigade, responded by stating that his officers and troops turned against the police after one of their own soldiers was shot and taken away.
In a phone call, he claimed that his officers only desired to free a member of their own team who had been taken away by the police.
