12th August, 2010
Sergeant Mohammed Yunusa of MOPOL 9 in Kano is cooling his heels in the cell of the State Criminal Investigation Department, SCID, for shooting at three persons, thus contravening the Force Order 237.
His fate is hanging -n the balance as Kano State Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Gana, has instructed officers of the SCID to investigate what prompted Yunusa to shoot the victims this afternoon.
The over-zealous MOPOL, attached to Kano State Urban Development Agency Task Force shot into a crowd at Jubilee Junction in the heart of the ancient city.
The police bullet wounded three youths, Mustapha Mohammed, Nuhu Aliyu and Abdulraman Majid.
The victims who have been treated and discharged at Murtala Mohammed Specialist Hospital, were among thousands of Kano youths and women who came to benefit from one of the numerous women/youth empowerment programmes of Governor Ibrahim Shekarau.
The empowerment scheme sponsored under the auspices of Ministry of Commerce and Industry is worth N40 million.
Items such as GSM handsets, generating sets, motorcycles were being shared to beneficiaries when law and order broke down and there was serious stampede at the Co-operative Society Complex located near the Jubilee Roundabout in Kofar Nasarrawa area of Kano municipality.
Yunusa , in his quest to calm the situation, started shooting to scare the crowd, but he was to be blame, “for using warning shots without permission,†a police source told P.M.NEWS.
“When a policeman misuses his firearms, it means he is on his own,†CP Gana told P.M.NEWS this evening, adding that a full scale investigation of the incident has begun.
When P.M NEWS visited the SCID cell, Yunusa was seen in sad mood.
“He may lose his job, if he is found guilty,†one of his colleagues Yunusa said.
MADUABUCHI NMERIBEH/Kano