•Police officer dies in gun battle
Officers attached to Operation Zenda Joint Taskforce in Benue State Police Command subdued a suspected gang of bandits in the early hours of Wednesday, March 19, and neutralised 12 of them in a gun duel.
Items recovered from them include three AK-47 rifles, six rounds of live ammunition, camouflage uniforms and assorted charms.
In the encounter, which occurred at about 2a.m., one of the police team members, Inspector Terfa Anyiatse, paid the supreme price, as he succumbed to gunshot injury he sustained during the gun battle.
Information gathered by Thenewsbearer, from a statement by the Police Public Relations Officer in the command, CSP Catherine Anene, had it that following an order by the Commissioner of Police, Steve H. Yabanet, to tactical commanders and Divisional Police Officers (DPOs) to clamp down on criminals in the state as they were reportedly regrouping, the joint taskforce operatives embarked on raids across the state.
Thenewsbearer further learnt that on the said date, some of the operatives were on their way to a criminal hideout at Agwabi, Tombo ward, Buruku Local Government Area, when they ran into an ambush laid by the bandits who engaged them in a gun duel.
The police were said to have responded with a superior firepower, resulting in fatal injuries to the 12 bandits.
The PPRO said that after the bandits were confirmed dead by doctors in the hospital they were taken to, their bodies were deposited in the hospital morgue.
The corpse of the deceased police officer was also deposited in the morgue for an autopsy
Commiserating with family and friends of the deceased officer, the Commissioner of Police prayed for the repose of his soul.
He also extolled the courage of the operatives involved in the operation.
Similarly, operations carried out around Daudu and Makurdi by various police Divisions led to the recovery of seven locally-made pistols, arrest of five suspected robbers and 32 suspected cultists.
