Bala Ibrahim, a police corporal working with a patrol team on night duty in Bauchi, capital of Bauchi State, shot and killed a police superintendent, Christian Eza, a former aide de camp to Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State. Until his shooting death, Mr. Eza served as commander of the Mobile Police (MOPOL 10) in Bauchi State.

According to a police signal obtained by SaharaReporters, superintendent Eza was in mufti and going home from work around 11:30 p.m. (Nigerian time) when he ran into a patrol team within the Bauchi metropolis. He reportedly noticed that a member of the patrol team was wearing a MOPOL khaki cargo pant, which is not allowed for those policemen who are directly in the MOPOL.

Mr. Eza reportedly stopped his vehicle and demanded that the patrol team, which included Inspector Gowon Shifi and Corporal Nasiru Adamu, attached to the police Directorate of Operations in Bauchi, explain why Bala was wearing MOPOL khaki when he was not a MOPOL member. When Mr. Eza stepped forward to disarm the corporal, the corporal cocked his gun and asked him to step back. Mr. Eza continued to approach him, but the corporal, who refused to surrender his weapon because he said he did not know who the superintendent was, opened fire, hitting the former ADC on the chest from close range. The former security aide to Mr. Uduaghan was later pronounced dead at the teaching hospital in Bauchi.

SUPOL Chris Eza leading his men at a political rally
Our sources said officials at the police headquarters in the state have ordered the arrest of all the policemen on the patrol team. One police source disclosed that Mr. Eza had been worried about his deployment to Bauchi, telling a few close confidantes that he feared that Islamist insurgents belonging to Boko Haram may have infiltrated his team. The source told SaharaReporters that the deceased officer lived in a heavily fortified zone in Bauchi, several miles away from his command, out of fear that he could get killed by some of his lieutenants linked to Boko Haram.

The deceased officer hailed from Erowha in Isoko south local government area of Delta State.