The police have recovered the bodies of 16 personnel who died during the exchange of fire with bandits in Zamfara State last week Thursday.
Twenty personnel who were missing during the operation was said to have been rescued by the Police Joint Intervention Force.
The Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Jimoh Moshood, had earlier claimed only one policeman was killed, but a statement on Wednesday by Zamfara Police spokesman, SP Mohammed Shehu, put the casualty figure at 16.
“The search and rescue operations embarked on by the Police Joint Intervention Force to rescue the missing police personnel after the November 29, 2018, onslaught on the armed bandits resulted in the successful rescue of 20 Policemen alive, while 16 personnel were found dead,” it explained.
The statement expressed the IG’s condolences to the families of the deceased Policemen, noting that he had ordered befitting burials for the gallant officers and the prompt processing and payments of their life assurance benefits and other entitlements.
Following the bloody encounter with the bandits and the high casualties, the force leadership had deployed the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Department of Operations, Habila Joshiak, to take over the command of the operation.
The police had said the PJIT operatives killed 104 hoodlums and destroyed 50 criminal hideouts in Zurmi Local Government Area while they recovered 500 cattle and 79 sheep during the operation.
