Nasarawa Killings: Police, SSS Admit Failure

The Police and the State Security Services (SSS) yesterday admitted laxity over the massacre that took place in Nasarawa State recently as they admitted that 46 policemen and 10 SSS operatives were killed by the cult.

This revelation was made by the Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Frank Mba and her SSS counterpart, Ms Marilyn Ogar at the Joint Security Information Forum on the security situation in the country.

The two disclosed that some policemen and some SSS operatives were ordered to prevent a security breach observed but not knowing that the operation would be bloody since the report at hand did not put the Ombatse cult in the same category with the Boko Haram that attacked Baga and Bama hence the level of force involved was not on the high side.

According to Ogar, if they had known that the situation would be that bloody, “we would have had the military back-up but we had never thought there would be such a disaster, otherwise we would have gone there with the military back up, but there was no military back up. We (SSS) sent 10 personnel and all of them were killed, four corpses have been released for burial.”

Speaking further, Ogar became emotional reminding journalists present that she was a woman, a mother, then fought hard in vain to hold back tears and had to step aside for a while. She appealed to all and sundry to rally round the security operatives in their bid to ensure that there is no repeat of such  senseless killing. According to her, “we should all feel ashamed of what happened in Nasarawa State.”

Mba who spoke in the same vein appealed to Nigerians to be patient with the security operatives who have vowed not only to bring the culprits to book but to ensure such an incident is not repeated in the country again.



-- Leadership