By 247ureports.com
Police officers on a clearance operation in Plateau State reportedly clashed with armed men suspected to be soldiers at a suspected militia hideout in the Rafiki area of Bassa Local Government Area on Tuesday, October 20, at about 11:45 a.m., according to a video that has been circulating online. The police and the military have not confirmed the incident, its cause or whether anyone was hurt.
The account comes from an anonymous eyewitness whose video was picked up by social media accounts and several websites. It shows police personnel working under the orders of Inspector-General of Police Tunji Disu confronting armed men at a location said to be a hideout for militia members and other criminal elements. The eyewitness account names a military officer and a local association official as having been present with armed men, which is a serious allegation. 247ureports.com could not verify it and is not repeating the names. Efforts by one outlet to reach the Plateau State Police spokesman for comment were unsuccessful, and no military statement has appeared.
The operation is part of a wider police push in the state. A Special Tactical Squad deployed by the IGP arrived in Jos on Saturday, October 17, and has since carried out clearance operations in seven local government areas, among them Bassa, Jos South, Bokkos, Jos East, Mangu, Shendam and Qua’an Pan, with the police saying several suspected bandits and militia members were neutralised and hideouts destroyed, and that no officer was harmed. The army’s Operation Enduring Peace has long been the main military force in Plateau, so police operations there put two agencies in the same ground.
The reported face-off has landed in a charged atmosphere. A youth coalition in Plateau has claimed that a network it calls “Fulani terrorist” is preparing a campaign against security agencies, and Plateau civic figures have clashed in recent days over calls for a state of emergency, the disbanding of the state’s Operation Rainbow outfit and the removal of the DSS director. A video of a clash between two arms of the security forces will add to the debate, and the police and army will be under pressure to explain what happened and to confirm that they are coordinating their operations.
