The Nigeria Army has dismissed a report that soldiers searching for the missing Maj Gen Idris Alkali (retd.) shot and killed a 35-year-old woman, Sarah Edward Nyam, in Fwapa Doi, Jos, Plateau State, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.
The Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, Col Kayode Ogunsanya, who refuted the report in a statement on Saturday, warned against fake news.
Ogunsonya said the division’s headquarters “wishes to state categorically that the report was a deliberate falsehood and an attempt to portray the division in a bad light.”
He added, “I wish to state that, contrary to the report, the soldiers were in the Dura-Du District and its environs from Monday, 15th October to Wednesday, 17th October, 2018.
“They were there to provide security to the sniffer dogs deployed to assist in locating the whereabouts of the missing retired senior officer, Maj-Gen Idris Alkali, and not on Friday, 19th October 2018 as reported.
“On completion of the mission, the troops and sniffer dogs returned to the barracks on Wednesday, 17th October, 2018. The troops did not engage anyone in a firefight because the entire district had been deserted. No soldier fired any shot. All of the ammunition was duly accounted for by the troops.”
The spokesperson also refuted the report that soldiers stopped people from accessing their homes, burgled their shops, ate their chickens and goats and ransacked their homes.
According to him, the headquarters earlier advised residents, who fled their homes and business premises, to return to avoid their homes and business premises from being broken into by miscreants.
The husband of the deceased, Edward Nyam, had alleged that soldiers shot his wife dead on Thursday night around 7.35pm.
Homeowners of the houses located close to the Dura Du mining pond and neighbouring villages, such as Doi and Lapamde, were said to have fled.
The Village Head in Doi community, Da Michael Gyang, accused the military of humiliating the community for no reason.
While condemning the killing of the woman in Doi, Gyang stated that the military, which was supposed to defend the masses, had allegedly become a threat to the residents.
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