Some youth residing in Kuru, a town near Jos, the Plateau State capital, on Monday clashed with operatives of the Special Task Force, after a round of shootings by unknown gunmen and the security operatives in the area killed one of the residents..
The gunfire which occurred Sunday night also injured a male passer-by.
The protesting youth Monday morning, set bonfires and barricaded the main Kuru-Vom-Manchok road. They later marched through the streets chanting war songs, accusing soldiers of the killing.
However, STF spokesman, Captain Salifu Mustapha, denied allegations that the outfit carried out the shootings. He stated that the victims were hit by “stray bullets” from unidentified persons who opened fir indiscriminately on Sunday.
Mustapha in an interview said, “The attack was carried out by some unknown men who just fired indiscriminately and ran away. In fact, there are no STF men stationed at the point where the attack happened.”
“The bullets from these attackers were not aimed at anyone in particular and that is why I say they were stray bullets. Right now, we are trying to find out who carried out the attack, but the youths are distracting us; I don’t know why the youths should blame the soldiers over such crime and follow that up by taking the laws into their hands.”
“For now the road is closed but very soon the road shall be opened for vehicular movement. We have made some arrests, but I don’t know how many. I can only confirm that later, ” he said.
Mustapha added that troop reinforcements has been sent to the area to restore normalcy.
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