See How Army, Police Engaged In Shootout Over Rice, Semo in Borno

[caption id="attachment_9433" align="alignnone" width="600"]IMAGE CREDIT: Getty ImagesFILE PHOTO[/caption]

“What is a bag of rice that will give you the cause to be angry? Bag of rice? It is shameful. If the world hears that it is because of bag of that made police and soldiers to be fighting, is it not shameful? Let us not behave like children: all of us have children at home. Soldiers and policemen should be seen to be matured in their dispositions at all times.”

See How Army, Police Engaged In Shootout Over Rice, Semo in Borno

It was a show of shame at the Borno Government House Maiduguri as soldiers and police exchanged fire over rice and other essential commodities.

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The shootout which lasted for over 10 minutes left at least one person injured, while the hundreds that had gathered at the Government House scampered for safety.

Borno state is the epic center of the Boko Haram insurgency for over five years now.

Trouble started when some soldiers attempted to break through the police cordon at the sharing centre, a move that was resisted by the police stationed at the Government House.

The Borno state government has been distributing food items to the indigent during the Ramadan fast which mainly consist of a 25kg bag of rice, semovita, sugar, millet etc.

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It was learnt that on Thursday, people in hundreds had converged at the entrance of the government building in Maiduguri, when the Nigerian Army truck showed up, insisting on gaining access to the venue.

With the insistence by the police on duty that the soldiers turn back, an angry soldier allegedly opened fire, injuring a policeman in the leg.

The police responded and gunshots rent the air as thousands gathered scampered for safety.

An army officers, Lieutenant Idris, was severely beaten up by angry policemen who accused him of instigating the crisis.

Calm was only restored when the commander of the operation Lafiya Dole, Major General Lucky Irabor, arrived alongside the state police commissioner and the director of State Security Service.

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Addressing the officers and men at the scene, Irabor said: “What is a bag of rice that will give you the cause to be angry? Bag of rice? It is shameful. If the world hears that it is because of bag of that made police and soldiers to be fighting, is it not shameful? Let us not behave like children: all of us have children at home. Soldiers and policemen should be seen to be matured in their dispositions at all times.

“While everyone is clapping for good that we have been doing, let us not also do things that will make them to begin to stone us. I want you to calm your nerves, because in a family you are likely to find incidents of misunderstanding.”

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