Police Death Toll Rises To 47 As 28 Are Released By Militia

It has been learnt that 28 riot policemen who survived the attack in Nasarawa were released by the militia and returned to their base in Akwanga.

Some of them returned to base without their rifles which they lost to their attackers.

The Public Relations Officer, Nasarawa State Police Command, Michael Ada, confirmed the return of the policemen to one of our correspondents on Friday.

He said that 17 others were still missing, adding that they had been presumed dead since they were yet to be seen two days after.

“The 17 missing policemen are presumed dead because they have been missing for over 48 hours. So this brings the number of the dead to 47. But the search and rescue teams are still searching for the missing officers and they have yet to report back to the headquarters,” Ada explained.

The Commissioner of Police, Mr. Abayomi Akeremale, also confirmed the return of the 28 policemen.

Akeremale told the News Agency of Nigeria in Lafia that some of the policemen held hostage by the group during the attack were released on Friday morning.

He said 17 corpses of the slain officers were yet to be recovered. He explained that a total of 93 policemen were deployed for the operation, out of which 43 were suspected to have been killed.

Akeremale said that a suspected member of the militia had been arrested and was in police custody, adding that investigations on the incident were going on.

Akeremale also said he would visit the Squadron 38 Mopol Base in Akwanga to appeal to spouses and children of the slain policemen, who blocked the Akwanga-Lafia highway on Friday in protest over the killings.