Police have debunked speculations that there was influx of strange persons believed to be the members of the Boko Haram sect into Taraba State.
The state Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Shaba Alkali, made the denial yesterday in Jalingo, while parading some armed robbery suspects arrested recently by his men. Recently, there was rumour making the round that the state was witnessing an influx of Boko Haram members.
Alkali explained that those coming into the state were job seekers and displaced persons running away from troubled areas of Borno, Gombe, Yobe and Adamawa states.
According to him, most of those coming into the state were Taraba indigenes who were residing in the affected states. He said: “A truck conveying more than 50 persons including women and children intercepted by the police in Jalingo recently did not carry Boko Haram members.”
The commissioner disclosed that after screening it was discovered that more than 90 per cent of them were indigenes of Taraba State.
He also said that the police were aware of plans by some politicians in the state to recruit machineries, including purchase of arms, to disrupt the forthcoming rerun election for state and National Assembly elections in about 48 polling units across four local government areas. Alkali warned that the police would deal decisively with anybody, no matter how highly placed, found to be fomenting trouble during the exercise.
