Three children have died while four others sustained different degrees of injuries when a dane gun accidentally discharged at Didango Gaita village in Karim-Lamido Local Government Area of Taraba State.
The State Police Commissioner, CP David Iloyonomon, who confirmed the incident on Sunday, March 31, 2024, while debunking the earlier claims that the children were killed in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) explosion or dynamite explosion.
Iloyonomon said this was arrived at after thorough investigation by his men, revealing that the affected children were playing with a dane gun hung on a tree located in a rice farm of their father.
The killing of the children, all below the age of 12 sent fears in the people of the village who started running for their lives with fears that it was terrorist attack.
The Police boss, while refuting the claims asserted that the three children that died were playing with a dane gun on a tree, whose gun powder later exploded and killed them.
According to the CP, the four other children playing under the tree were injured with one fatally affected.
He said the injured children are currently receiving treatment at the state’s specialist hospital located in Jalingo, the state capital.
“One Danjuma Audu gave the information to the police that there was an explosion which resulted to the death of three youngsters and the injury of four others,” the Commissioner said.
"On the receipt of the information, we deployed the Anti-Bomb Unit of the Nigeria Police Force who rushed to the scene, conducted a professional and thorough search and discovered that no exhibit is related to dynamite or IED recovered from the scene.
“Instead, they recovered pallets from a dane gun which was evident in the bodies of the casualties and suspected to be responsible for their death
"Further findings by the E.O.D unit revealed that the three pellets recovered are used in conjunction with gun powder to prepare ammunition for dane guns.
"Thereafter we went to further interview Mallam Danjuma Audu who reported the incident to the police, he revealed that the three children that died were the ones on top of the tree while in the farm, while the other four that were on the ground sustained injuries and that’s a very clear evidence to show that it is not an IED explosion, because if it were to be IED or dynamite explosion, those children on the ground and on the tree would have been shattered beyond recognition,” the police boss said.
The police commissioner identified the three deceased children as Miracle Danjuma, 11 years old; Liyacheyan Bitrus, 12 years old; and Kefas Bitrus, 11 years old, with the first casualty Miracle Danjuma the son of the man who reported the incident.
Others that sustained varying degrees of injuries include Joseph Danjuma, 8; Leah Aluda, 8; Godbless Hassan, 7 years and Christian Hassan, 7 years old who is the grand child of Danjuma Audu, the owner of an irrigation rice farm whom the children followed to assist in his farm.
