Soldier kills colleague, humanitarian worker

A soldier of the 25 Task Force Brigade in Borno ran amok on Thursday and shot a female humanitarian aid worker to death while injuring a UN pilot.

Reports said he would have taken more lives, but for the quick intervention of his colleagues who neutralised him.

Reacting to the incident, the Theatre Command of “Operation HADIN KAI’’, expressed regret at the sad occurrence at one of its military bases.

Maj. Samson Zhakom, Assistant Director, Army Public Relations. Headquarters, Theatre Command, said the soldier shot and killed a staff member of one of the NGOs providing humanitarian support in the Northeast.

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“Same soldier also killed another soldier and injured the co-pilot of one of the UN helicopters. Own troops on the ground immediately neutralised the errant personnel,’’ he said.

He explained that the injured co-pilot had been stabilised while the corpses of the deceased have been moved to the 7 Division Hospital.

He added that detailed investigation into the incident and subsequent remedial actions had started.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) gathered that the soldier walked off his base in a remote town of Damboa in Borno, on Thursday and went on a shooting spree using an Ak47 riffle.

The development compelled humanitarian workers of an international non-governmental organisation waiting at the military base to board a helicopter back to Maiduguri to scamper to safety.

One of the humanitarian agencies’ workers, Mr Abdulkareem Ibrahim, told NAN that the soldier emptied his magazine and after realising that he had ran out of bullets, he brought out a jack knife.

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“He stabbed a female staff of one of the international NGOs four times, killing her before injuring the helicopter pilot,’’ Ibrahim said.

Ibrahim added that the rampaging soldier again turned and chased his colleagues before he was gunned down to prevent further disaster.

He said that the pilots and the crew were safely back to Maiduguri while efforts were on-going to stabilise the wounded co-pilot at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital. (NAN)