Police corporal leads Ombatse attack on military checkpoint

Among those arrested was a police corporal from Force Headquarters in Abuja who was presented to newsmen and who gave his name as Corporal Ekipi Mala.
An army lieutenant who declined to give his name while briefing newsmen at the Government House, Lafia said about 200 Ombatse militia attacked soldiers at the military checkpoint at Alushi Junction, along Akwanga-Keffi road.
He said soldiers on duty fended off the attack, killing not less than 10, including a militia field commander.
 The officer said the identity card found on the police corporal after he was shot and wounded showed that he was from a squadron of the Mobile Police (MOPOL).
The army officer said soldiers first flagged down a man in his early 20s, riding a motorcycle, who attempted to go through the checkpoint without a pass.
He later said he was sent by Baba Alakyo, the chief priest of the Eggon cult group, to his elder brother in a village near Alushi.
The elder brother was said to have stormed the checkpoint with not less than 200 youths armed with guns of all sorts and machetes, all of dressed in black attire with red scarf screaming war chants in Eggon language.
“They opened fire. The teenager was holding an AK47”, a soldier said. But the military men said they were able to repel them with superior fire power, in a shootout that lasted over 10 minutes.
He said other members of the Ombatse moved a little from that point, and blocked the road before reinforcement of soldiers from 177 Brigade of Guards Battalion in Keffi arrived and dislodged them.
At Government House, the team of soldiers met with Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, who was in company of the state police commissioner, Umar Shehu.
Meanwhile, the President General of Eggon Cultural and Development Association (ECDA), Chris Maman, said “soldiers shot and killed two boys, all of them are Eggon. They were riding on a motorcycle. The corpses are still lying there by the road side.”
More than 10 policemen of Eggon origin have been in detention with the Nasarawa State police command, after they were arrested in May, in connection with the alleged leak of a security operation to members of the Ombatse.