***Say Army has no Constitutional right to do so

By Wole Mosadomi

MINNA- Niger state police command has faulted the invation of Bosso Communities in the state recently by the Army which led to the death of no fewer than 24 people out of which 11 of them were soldiers with property worth millions of Naira also destroyed.

Niger state Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Zubairu Muazu who testified before the Commission sitting in Minna yesterday declared that the Army has no constitutional powers to carry out that operation saying such powers rest on the Police.

Besides lack of constitutional right, the Commissioner made it Clear that the Command has no Intelligence report suspecting the villages attacked of stockpiling arms and ammunitions.

“As far as I am concerned, there has never been any report of gun running or armed banditry in the area before the military invasion and the police even have an outpost which is five hundred meters from Kpaidna where the incident occurred and there has never been any report from the station about such ammunition stockpiling.”

The incidence occurred only nine days after I assumed duties as the state police commissioner but such report was not in the handover notes submitted to me by my predecessor as describing the area as a dangerous spot,” the Commissioner declared.

He said even if the Army wanted to go on such operation, it would have involved his Command. According to the CP, “such cordon and search operation can only be done through joint operation with the police taking the lead while the army will provide cover and the operation must be carried out after search warrant must have been obtained,”he explained.

The Police boss also faulted the timing of the operation which was in the midnight saying,”cordon and search could only be done between the hours of 6am and 7pm and not the wee hours that the army carried out the operation and even at that, it is the Police that have that Constitutional powers to do that.”