Abuja: Soldier Shoots A Driver And Stabs Another

There has been tension in the Giri community
since when a soldier allegedly shot and wounded a
resident of the area, identified as Danjuma Joshua,
while another person, Manga Lukman Barde, was
also stabbed by the same soldier, last Friday.
An witness said the incident happened around
1:42p.m. when two soldiers, in mufti had
misunderstanding with a driver of a Nissan pick-up
van with registration number XA 339 NAS, who
was carrying timber.
The witness said the driver, identified as Idris
Musa, was driving into the village while the two
soldiers were walking by the side of the road.
“The driver decided to stop after he got close to the
soldiers because there were two vehicles parked by
the road side, narrowing the road,” the witness
said.
“But when one of the soldiers turned back and saw
the driver stopped, he asked the driver why he
stopped close to them,” he said.
The witness said the driver decided to make a
phone call which angered the two soldiers who also
placed a call to their men at the nearby Army base
in the area and the soldiers came in their large
number to the area, inside a Toyota Hilux van.
He alleged that the soldiers started shooting
sporadically and Joshua was hit by a bullet.
He further alleged that it was when Barde, who
was the driver of the incumbent chairman of
Gwagwalada Area Council, Alhaji Abubakar Jibrin
Giri, tried to broker peace between the pick-up van
diver and the soldiers that he was allegedly
stabbed.
When our reporter visited Joshua at the University
of Abuja Teaching Hospital at Gwagwalada, where
he was receiving treatment on Friday, he said he
was hit by the soldiers’ stray bullets when he was
trying to find out what was happening.
The chairman’s driver, who was admitted at a
private clinic in Gwagwalada, could not speak with
our reporter as he was still unconscious.
Reacting to the incident, the chairman of the
council said he was not at home when the incident
happened but one of his security men called to
inform him about the incident.

The chairman called on the security authorities to
fish out those behind the incident.
He cautioned residents, especially youth, not to
take laws into their own hands. When contacted,
the Gwagwalada Divisional Police Officer (DPO),
ASP Rabiu Mohammed, confirmed the incident,
even though he said the matter is before the
military authorities.
He said: “When the incident happened, I called and
informed the military authorities and I believe that
they are already doing something about the
incident. The FCT police commissioner was also
informed about the incident. “