A police inspector, Jacob Daniel, has died in the course of a clash between soldiers and policemen at the Adamawa Police Command headquarters in Yola, which was attacked in the early hours of Wednesday by invading soldiers.

This followed a rift between police operatives and their military counterparts that started in the late hours of Tuesday, according to sources.

The clash started at a check point around Target Junction in Jimeta and culminated in the attack on the police headquarters within the same Jimeta district of Yola.

Yola residents woke up on Wednesday to speculations about the apparent ‘fight’ between the police and military, mostly the attack on the police headquarters.

But confirmation was not coming as neither the Police nor the military was returning phone calls and text messages sent to them.

Residents close to the police headquarters reported sporadic gunshots, claiming soldiers that came with a patient were denied admission at the Police Clinic near the Police headquarters.

The soldiers reportedly proceeded to the headquarters to vent their anger.

A resident of the Command headquarters neighborhood said fierce sound of gunshots which lasted nearly 30 minutes distorted the peace of the night.

Reacting on Wednesday morning, the Police Command confirmed the clash between its operatives and military men.

Adamawa Police spokesman SP Suleiman Nguroje, said Commissioner of Police, CP Afolabi Babatola, affirmed what he described as “the recent conflict between Police and Military Officers” at a part of Jimeta called Target Junction, from where it escalated with the attack on the police headquarters elsewhere in Jimeta.

According to the statement, the conflict at Target Junction “resulted in exchange of fire and brutal attack on the Police Facility (command headquarters) and killing of Inspector Jacob Daniel.”

The statement said the CP had ordered an immediate investigation into the matter with a view to ensuring peace and justice.

It added: “The CP warned that attacks on all security officers in the line of duty would no longer be tolerated under whatever guise, as the Command holds the lives of all security personnel sacrosanct, and such unwarranted conflict would be strictly treated in accordance with extant laws.”

Commander of the 23 Armoured Brigade, Brig General Gambo Mohammed, said his men acted to rescue one of their officers taken away by police operatives.

The Commander, giving the perspective of the military in the fracas, said on phone: “Police shot at our soldiers at a checkpoint. A soldier was injured and they (Police) went and hid him. The soldiers went to rescue the soldier they (police) shot and took away. They (Police) shot at us so they too (soldiers) fired back.” (Adapted from a report by The Nation)

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