Kaduna – April 13, 2016 (NAN) The Police on Wednesday said that members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) were aware of the arrival of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) in Zaria on December 12, 2015.
The Police stated this during a submission at the ongoing public hearing of the Commission of Inquiry into the December 12 Shiite/Nigerian Army clash in Zaria.
Mr Kenneth Dika, a DSP from Force Headquarters and Martin Leo, an ASP from the Kaduna State Police Command presented the submission of the police during the public hearing.
Dika told the panel that investigation by the police revealed that the Shiites barricaded the road after learning that the COAS would pass through there.
Dika, while under cross examination by Yusuf Ali, Counsel to the commission, said that by the time the Police Area Commander in Zaria was alerted, the Shiites had already blocked the road.
He told the panel that the police had no record of lives lost during the incident.
“We have no evidence of the lives lost during the crises and the police believes that if its men were alerted to the scene of incidence on good time the situation would have been better managed.“
The officers told the commission that 189 suspects had been arraigned in court for culpable homicide following their arrests in connection with the clash.
Dika said, however, that 81 persons comprising women and children had been granted bail by the court.
The officials also disclosed that the police was in custody of over 1,200 SIM cards, 200 cell phones, 18 pieces of Army and Police uniforms, two IEDs and several local arms, handed to it by the Army.
The items, he said, were recovered from the scene of the incident.
NAN reports that the Police Commissioner, in charge of Homicide at the Force Headquarters, AbdulRasheed Adekunle, former Commissioner of Police, Kaduna State Command, Umar Shehu, the new Commissioner, Adamu Ibrahim attended the sitting.
Meanwhile, the panel’s Chairman, Justice Muhammed Lawal-Garba has adjourned sitting till April 20 for the police to present witnesses.
Lawal-Garba mandated the police to include the DPOs of Sabon Gari and Zaria Local Governments on the list of their witnesses.
The panel has also received submissions from the Nigerian Prisons Service, Department of State Services, and National Emergency Management Agency.
