Imported User:
Residents of the NITECO and Peter Sariki roads, Minna, on Friday night witnessed horror as one of the men of the special combined team of the anti-terrorism squad guarding the area shot a visiting pregnant woman in the neck.
LEADERSHIP SUNDAY gathered that, at about 10:30pm, the woman named Safiya and her husband Mohammed Kabir, who is a staff member of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Kaduna, were driving through the road heavily manned by the combined team when they were ordered to stop.
It was gathered that the couple, who were in Minna for a visit, were driving in an ash-coloured Peugeot 406, and the husband was the one driving when they were ordered to stop.
Mallam Kabir, it was gathered, was slowing down to a stop when one of the men opened fire at the car and some of the bullets which had destroyed the back windshield of the car hit Safiya in the neck.
It was gathered that immediately the bullet hit Safiya, the husband started shouting in Hausa that they had killed his wife. It was gathered that it was the shout that attracted the residents of the area.
LEADERSHIP SUNDAY learnt that when the residents came out and discovered that Safiya was still breathing they rushed her to two private hospitals where the doctors rejected her because it was a bullet wound.
It was learnt that, at that time, some top security officers arrived and escorted the injured woman to Minna General Hospital where she was given treatment and transferred to Abuja early yesterday morning because of her critical condition and the discovery that she was pregnant.
It was also gathered that the security man who shot at the car was immediately arrested and the rifle seized by the other men on duty and handed over to the police.
The police public relations officer, Richard Oguche, was not available, but a senior police officer who preferred anonymity confirmed the incident to LEADERSHIP SUNDAY. The officer also confirmed that, contrary to the belief that the woman was dead , she was still receiving treatment in Abuja, though in a critical condition.
Early last month, soldiers guarding Minna Prison molested a teenage girl who spent several weeks in the hospital in coma. The military authority said that the girl could have been shot for walking over the barricade.
