Police shot 12-year old over palliative in Niger

A twelve-year old boy identified as Danlami has been hit with stray bullet at the venue of palliative distribution in Rijau Local Government Council of Niger State as the Police in an effort to disperse crowd scrambling for food items began to shoot sporadically.

The victim, an internally displaced person was shot on his right hand while heading to the distribution centre on Sunday.

Fielding questions from journalists, the Chairman of palliative distribution committee in charge of Rijau Local Government, Dr. Tukur Bello stated that the police in an effort to restore order mistakenly shot the victim who was rushed to a. nearby clinic for an emergency medical attention before he was later referred to the IBB Specialist Hospital in Minna for further medical care.

Dr. Tukur who is also the Commissioner for Secondary and Tertiary health in Niger State disclosed that some miscreants who came into the distribution units to cart away some of the palliative items resulted in shooting by the police.

He explained that the police were trying to control the crowd shot in the air, unfortunately, the stray bullet hit the little boy who is an IDP on his right hand.

“We. rushed him to one of the clinic for emergency medical attention. Governor Umar Mohammed Bago on receiving the unfortunate information, directed that we should do everything humanly possible to ensure that the boy was given full medical attention.

“That why we are here with the boy, and we thank God the boy is being given the medical attention and is now recuperating” he told journalists.

Already, Dr. Tukur stated that the Divisional police officer in charge of Rijau Divisional Command has taken the police who shot the boy into custody for further investigation.