Four days after suspected Fulani militia attacked troops in Zamfara State, the whereabouts of Sergeant Sunday Itodo, a mobile police officer, is yet to be known.

This was confirmed to our correspondent by a member of the Itodo family, Prince Yemi Itodo.

Sergeant Itodo, a native of Otukpa in Benue State, was among the 1,000-man troop deployed to Zamfara State by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) on November 9, to “root-out the armed bandits” terrorising the state.

According to the Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), DCP Jimoh Moshood, the troops were ambushed at about 4pm on November 29, by “armed bandits at Mahanga Forest in Birnin Mogaji LGA of Zamfara State”, adding that in the process, the troops “killed 104 bandits, destroyed over 50 hideouts of the bandits in three camps, recovered over 500 cattle and 79 sheep from them, but unfortunately lost a policeman during the attacks.”

However, in a chat with our correspondent in Abuja, Prince Itodo discountenanced the police account stating that it was confirmed to the family by an anonymous source that Sergeant Itodo was shot during the attack and a colleague of his who attempted to rescue him to a nearby bush path, was also shot.

Prince Itodo stated that the family has not been able to confirm if his brother was still alive or not.

He said with tears: “The source told us this morning that my brother and all other officers shot were still under hostage in the forest, as efforts by both Nigeria Police and Army to recover their bodies became fruitless.

“We learnt that dozens of Police officers were killed in the ambush and I’m sure the police authority has not come out clear on this. That’s why they pegged the casualty to only one.

“We were told that about three bodies were recovered immediately and brought to Abuja, but our brother was not amongst them. He is still being trapped in the forest with bullet wounds for days with neither food, water nor medications. We pray nothing happens to him.

“We therefore call on the IGP to help us. He should please intensify efforts to rescue our brother and, hope fully, alive too. We don’t want to believe he is dead. He can’t just abandon his young wife and four kids at this moment. My brother will not die, I only want the IGP to act fast.”

Itodo said he has reached out to an Assistant Inspector-General of Police who was recently deployed to the war-ravaged state to ascertain the status of his brother and also crave for urgent action.

“But we also want the federal government to do all within its powers to quickly salvage the situation and rescue our brother and any other person in the same predicament with him,” he added.

Sergeant Itodo is a member of Mopol 15 in Kwara state, has been in the Special Mobile Force of the federal government for almost eight years and was among the police personnel on foreign peace keeping mission in Somalia in 2013 and returned with award for gallantry.

He has also been part of the Special Forces fighting insurgency for many years in Borno, Kaduna, Sokoto, with his latest posting in Jos, before he was deployed to Zamfara three weeks ago.

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