By Three children killed, four injured in Taraba gun accident, Police says
Ghazali Ibrahim
The Taraba police command confirmed the death of three people, while four were left injured in Didango Geita community in Karim Lamido Local Government Area of Taraba State on Saturday in a gun accident.
The state commissioner of police, David Iloyonomon, revealed this in a statement issued in Jalingo on Sunday, dismissed a rumour that the children died from an explosion of a dynamite.
“The three children that died were playing with a dane gun on a tree, whose gunpowder later exploded and killed them,” the commissioner said.
He identified the three deceased children as two 11 year olds and a 12-year-old, where the first named victim was the son of the man who reported the incident.
According to him, four other children who were playing under the tree were injured with one receiving treatment at the state’s specialist hospital in Jalingo.
”One Danjuma Audu gave the information to the police that there was an explosion which resulted to the dead of three youngsters and the injury of four others
”On the receipt of the information, we deployed the anti-bomb unit of the Nigeria Police Force who rushed to the scene, conducted a professional and thorough search and discovered that no exhibit is related to dynamite or IED recovered from the scene
”Instead, they recovered pallets from a dane gun which was evident in the bodies of the casualties and suspected to be responsible for their death.
”Since there was no assailant, it is suspected to be an accidental discharge,” he explained.
The commissioner of police explained that the scene of the incident has been immersed up and investigation was ongoing to unravel more facts relating to the incident.
”Further findings by the E.O.D unit revealed that the three pallets recovered are used in conjunction with gun powder to prepare ammunition for dane guns.
The police chief also named the injured victims as two seven year olds and two eight year olds.
He said some of the victims were the grandchildren of Mr Audu, the owner of rice farm where the children had gone to offer help.
