Soldier Shoots Man In Abuja, 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. A 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. “