Trigger happy Police hits 7-month old baby with stray bullet

An innocent seven-month-old baby has been hit by a stray bullet from men of the Nigerian Police in Makurdi, the Benue State Capital.

According to an eyewitness the incident happened around 8:49 pm, on Tuesday, October 6, 2021, around the International market.

The eyewitness said the men from E Division station Akpehe “came to arrest some bad boys but unfortunately the boys saw them on time and quickly alerted the rest and they escaped.”

He said surprisingly the officers “started shooting sporadically and unfortunately, a stray bullet caught a 7month old baby whose mother was selling by the roadside.”

The eyewitness in a statement which was posted on Facebook by renowned Benue humanitarian, Ukan Kurugh, on Wednesday, said, “when the matter was reported to the E Division Police Station, The DPO said since the number of the vehicle wasn’t captured, he doesn’t have anything to do about it. The child is now at Emory hospital Akpehe Makurdi”

Giving a fresh update on Thursday, the activist wrote; “The bones on the right palm and fingers are broken, it was stitched to hold the hand in place. The boy needs surgery as soon as possible because as you can see from the pictures, colour changes are already taken place, meaning that there is not enough blood supply to that area, so the surgery fee for a start has been put at N300,000 inclusive of blood transfusion, laboratory investigations, bed fee and drugs for 14days only.”

He also informed that the officers behind the incident have “all been arrested and detained by the commissioner of police, they, however, said they were an exchange of gunfire with bad boys that caught up with the baby but an eye witness by name blessing also informed the police commissioner that they were no exchange of any gun fire as she watch what happened from start to finish immediately the police arrived and started shooting sporadically. “