The Kaduna Police Command has confirmed the killing of 7 people and 5 people injured by unknown gunmen who attacked Maro village market, a border community between Kajuru and Kachia local government areas, both in Kaduna State.
The gunmen had entered Maro village market when traders were closing for the business of the day and started shooting sporadically, resulting to the death of 7 people, while 5 people were injured.
The State Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Muhammad Jalige in a statement issued in Kaduna said, “The Command has received a sad information from DPO Kachia that on 12th Februar, 2020 at about 1915hrs that some unknown gunmen in military uniform invaded, Maro Village a border community between Kajuru and Kachia local government areas all of Kaduna state. The armed men entered the village market in a vehicle and started shooting sporadically and in the process shot some people.
“On receipt of the information, DPO Kajuru and Kachia immediately mobilized patrol teams to the area to restore normalcy but unfortunately seven (7) persons were found dead and five (5) were injured.”
The statement explained that both the dead and injured victims were evacuated by the Police to Kachia general hospital.
“The dead bodies deposited in the mortuary while the injured are currently receiving treatment at the same hospital. Normalcy has since been restored in the area. Investigation and manhunt of the fleeing bandits is ongoing with a view to bringing the perpetrators of this barbaric act of criminality to justice,” he explained.
The command said it was deeply saddened by the unfortunate incident and had already beefed up security in the area to ensure no further break down of law.
The command called on the general public to promptly report any suspicious activities or persons to the nearest security agencies with a view to proactively preventing re-occurrence of such dastardly act against the law abiding citizens of the state.
In another development, the Command said, “The attention of the Kaduna State Command has been drawn to some Social Media publication alleging the involvement of a Police officer in the unfortunate kidnapping and killing of Dr. Philip Ataga’s wife.
“The Command wishes to debunk the publication in it totality as fake, fictitious, maliciously fabricated to tarnish the image of the force. To set the record straight, there is no police officer from the command or anywhere in the country that involved in the unfortunate incident that led to the killing of Mrs Ataga .The public should also note that, the Ataga Family has already decried the news going round in some quarters of social media and has labeled it as fake.”
The Command said on receipt of the fake news, it immediately swung into action and investigated the allegations and found what it described as “nothing more than malicious blackmail embarks upon by the writer whose motives are unknown.”
The Police regretted, “This unprofessional attitude is capable of causing mistrust between the Police and members of the general public.”
