The Nigerian Army says the death of the University of Jos undergraduate, Rinji Peter, who was shot by soldiers of the Operation Safe Haven, OPSH deployed in Plateau State, was in error.
While regretting the incident, spokesperson of the Special Task Force, STF, Major Ibrahim Shittu, explained in a statement that at about 10pm on May 12, 2020 information was received on the activities of suspected armed robbers and cultists operating around No 18th Street, Jos South LGA of Plateau State.
He said the report revealed that the criminals took advantage of the lockdown and curfew to perpetrate crimes.
According to Shittu, Sector 1 patrol troops of OPSH swiftly responded and arrested 7 suspects, which were immediately moved to the Headquarters Sector 1 for preliminary investigation and thereafter, 5 out of the 7 suspects were cleared and asked to leave the premises and unfortunately as they were leaving the premises, one of the personnel on duty mistook them for escaping suspects, thus opened fire on them, which led to the death of Rinji Bala.
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The statement added that Operation Safe Haven condemns the sad incident and has also visited the parents of the deceased by its representative to commiserate with them while assuring the general public of justice.
As at the time of filing in this report, AIT gathered that all the soldiers involved in the extra-judicial killing of the 300 level undergraduate of the University of Jos have been arrested and detained. This has been confirmed by the STF Media Officer.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
