‘Missing Army General May Have Been Consumed in Recent Jos Violence’

As uncertainty continues to trail the whereabouts of Major General Mohammed Idris Alkali, who soldiers have been ransacking Jos South Local Government Area of Plateau State looking for concrete evidence of what became of him, sources say he may have been killed.

He is suspected to have been killed alongside 13 others that died in the aftermath of the killing at Lopandet Village in Dwei community, Du district, Jos South Local Government Area.

However, spokesman of the Special Task Force (STF), Major Adam Umar said yesterday that the General’s whereabouts was not established, and that the search for him was still ongoing.

Umar said it would not be proper conclude that the General was dead since there was no concrete and physical evidence to prove it.

However, the source said that Alkali may have been one of the people killed by the unknown gunmen on the 2nd of September, 2018 in Lopandet or the violence that ensued in the area after the killings.

General Alkali, retired from service as the Chief of Administration, Nigerian Army Headquarters a few weeks before he was declared missing on Monday, September 3rd 2018, a day after gunmen swooped on Lopandet and killed 13 persons. He was said to be travelling from Abuja to Bauchi, and somewhere around Jos his family lost contact with him.

There were speculations that he might have been killed and his body dumped in one of the mining ponds along Dura Du in Jos South Local Government Area of Plateau State, where violence erupted after the gunmen killed the 13 persons.

Umar said the command had commenced search for the retired General, adding that he could not be said to have died for now until the body was recovered. “That is why we are searching for him.”

There is currently a heavy presence of soldiers in the community where the incident was alleged to have happened, thus creating anxiety and panic.

Women in the community on Thursday protested the unusual military presence in the community.

Dressed in black attires, some of them half-naked, the women urged the soldiers to vacate their community since their presence created apprehension.

Reacting, the Search and Rescue officer in charge of the operation, Brig. General, Ibrahim Mohammed said they had it on credible intelligence that General Alkali got missing in that area, and that the army headquarters had mandated them to carry out the operation.

He assured that no amount of protest by the women would stop them from the operation, adding that they had contacted the community on the operation before it commenced.