Soldier blasts MOPOL officers with anti-aircraft gun because of girlfriend; here’s the devastation

An army corporal opened fire on a group of mobile police officers at the Makara Area of Gwoza LGA, Borno on Sunday.

Sergeant Roland Tafida, who would have completed his tour Saturday got shot in the blast. He died after losing much blood while others were badly injured.

The shooting also damaged some facilities at the Limankara Police Training Camp.

Tafida was among the MOPOL Special Forces Team deployed to Gwoza last August, on counter-insurgency operations and would have completed his six months anti-terrorism operation on February 8, 2020.

Roland, a father of two young girls, had already planned to depart Borno this weekend after his tour of duty.

An eyewitness told PRNigeria that the killing was “unfortunate and disheartening”. He recalled that the whole drama started between the soldier and another police officer over a girlfriend.

“Some people intervened and settled the matter when the aggrieved Army corporal asked a driver of an anti-aircraft gun Hilux belonging to his military base, to turn and face the Limankara Police Training Camp.

“Immediately after turning the vehicle, they opened fire and shot at the Camp’s facility. It was at that moment, Roland Tafida, the late police sergeant, was killed by a stray bullet because he was not involved in the earlier altercation.

“The blast from the anti-aircraft vehicle totally disfigured his left leg thigh as he was returning to the camp after he went to charge his phone somewhere.

“The MOPOL officer could have survived the terrible assault, but nobody could take him to a medical facility as he lay in his own pool of blood, bleeding profusely and bled to death.”

“It was the Army major that came out to beg the aggrieved MOPOL personnel. He was the one who restored order and normalcy, otherwise, a mayhem would have erupted.

“After begging the police officers, the major arrested the killer corporal, and thereafter, the Army Theatre Command, contacted the Borno Police Command.”

The Roland’s aunt, Mrs. Zwancit Dazang, said neither the Police or the Army have informed them of Roland’s death.

“We only got to know about our son’s tragic death in the social media. He was dressed in combat boots, jeans and a MOPOL T-shirt, with his rifle strapped on his shoulder, when he was shot”, Dazang said.

“The anti-aircraft truck is a lethal ammunition that can bring down a plane or helicopter from the sky; it can even destroy an armoured tank. That a soldier will use it to eliminate an innocent, but a fellow security officer like him, is unimaginable.”The soldier must be brought to book. Our son was there in Borno to defend his country. So, why should he be eliminated by someone he never hurt, or offended?”

The military and the police authorities constituted a joint fact-finding committee to probe the incident and have apprehended the culprit.

He was taken to the Maimalari Barrack in Maiduguri, while the military has taken responsibility for the damaged facilities at the Police camp.