One person was killed and five others injured in a fracas between security agents attached to the Borno State Geographical Information System (BOGIS) and some worshippers at a branch of EYN Church in Maiduguri, the state Governor, Prof. Babagana Zulum, has confirmed.
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It was gathered that troubled started when some members of the church had confrontation with operatives of the BOGIS, who is saddled with the task of marking landed property in the state as well as collecting revenue for the state government, and members of the church last Wednesday.
The confrontation degenerated to a situation while the BOGIS staff and the security escorts were pelted with stones while the security operatives retaliated by firing gunshots with led to death and injuries.
Speaking on the incident, Zulum ordered the state police command to immediately investigate the violent collusion between a joint security task force operating with the BOGIS and some worshippers at a branch of EYN Church in Maiduguri.
The governor, while condemning in strong terms the firing of gun shots by a member of the security task force as well as some persons who hurled stones at the task force during an encounter yesterday, lamented that one person was killed and five other persons injured and were hospitalised, in the confrontation.
Zulum’s spokesman, Isa Gusau, said the governor has commiserated with families of the person who died and those injured.
He said the governor had meanwhile called the Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, (CAN) in Borno State, Bishop Mohammed Naga, to commiserate with the Christian community and leadership as well as the family of the EYN church in the state.
Zulum also invited the CAN leadership for meeting scheduled for yesterday at the Government House in Maiduguri.
The governor also directed the Deputy Governor, Umar Kadafur, to visit the hospital where five injured persons are receiving treatment to empathise with them and also take over the cost of their treatment.
According to Gusau, the collusion happened last Wednesday when officials of BOGIS alongside a joint security task force went to the church for regulation of land administration and urban development measures, some of which have affected worship centres (mosques and churches) built without obedience to laid down regulations.
The BOGIS has so far demolished many illegally built mosques and churches in the ongoing reform.
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