The Nigerian Army has been thrown into a state of confusion, following the discovery of the missing car of retired Major General Idris Alkali in a mining pond in Du area of Jos South Local Government Area of Plateau State on Saturday without his body.
Major General Alkali retired from service on August 7, 2018.
Consequently, Saturday’s recovery of the retired General’s car without trace of his whereabouts has thrown the search team set up by Nigerian Army Headquarters to get him either dead or alive into more confusion.
The black Toyota Corolla car driven by Alkali on the day he was declared missing was found in a mining pond at Du, with shoes and cloths possibly belonging to him inside.
There are feelings in some quarters that Alkali may have been killed or taken into captivity by his assailants who later drove his car into a pond where it was recovered.
The Army has, however, assured that the cause of his disappearance would be known in days as the search team has intensified its assignment.
The search team had assured that the pond where the car was recovered would be completely drained, since Alkali’s body was not found in the car.
The recovery of the car in Du pond has sent shivers down the spines of residents who Vanguard gathered, are mulling mass relocation for fear of possible military action against them.
The residents are said to be afraid of military invasion, given past antecedents of the Nigerian Army when it invaded Odi in Bayelsa State and Zaki-Biam in Benue State respectively, over alleged attacks and killing of soldiers.
The Special Task Force Commander in the state, Major General Augustine Agundu, has, however, assured the residents of safety, saying they had nothing to fear as long as they cooperated with the military.
Recall that General Alkali (N/8353) disappeared while in transit from Abuja to Buachi through Jos, two weeks after retiring from service on August 7, 2018.
The Army had said the General, who was entitled to a driver and an orderly, decided to travel alone by driving himself.
Spokesman of the Army, Brig. General Texas Chukwu, said, however, that as a retired officer, the General had the freedom to travel anywhere without asking for permission from the Nigerian Army.
“He is also likely to travel with or without his driver and/or his orderly,” Chukwu said.
Chukwu had revealed that “the wife of the senior officer, Mrs. Salamatu Alkali, drew the attention of the Nigerian Army to a suspected case of the missing senior officer on September 5, 2018.
- According to the wife, the General left his home in Abuja for Bauchi on September 3, 2018.
The senior officer travelled without his driver and orderly but drove himself in a black Toyota Corolla. The wife said that when she last spoke to him on his GSM number 09056890335, he claimed to have passed Jos and was on his way to Bauchi.”
He said: “The Army contacted the MTN and Glo networks to furnish her with the missing senior officer call records.
”Appropriate technical intelligence facilities were also put into use and the senior officer’s phone was tracked to somewhere in Du District, near Jos, Plateau State.”
Incidentally, some unknown gunmen had killed people in the area the previous day, which led to protest in the community on the day the General travelled through Jos.
Also speaking, the Search and Rescue officer in charge of the operation, Brig. General Ibrahim Mohammed, said last week that they had it on credible intelligence that General Alkali got missing around Du area of Jos South Local Government Area, and that the Army Headquarters had mandated them to carry out the operation.
“In an effort to search for the missing General, a lot of things were done; all the hospitals in Jos were toured and checked. Besides, we have checked all the accident vehicles and scenes. And on credible intelligence, we now had to come to this community in the past one week.
”We are trying to find three things, one is the whereabouts of General Alkali who is now missing; we are also looking for his vehicle, which is a black Toyota Corolla vehicle, and we want to find out if he is still alive or not.“
“We have on credible information that some vehicles were actually pushed into this pond. We’ve been here trying to see if we can salvage anything from the pond. The pond is a mining site, and it’s very deep.
”We have a crane, and we have used all kinds of methods and as the last resort, we have decided that we are going to evacuate the water,” he had said.
