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Until Wednesday, March 2, neighbours of Sergeant Bello said he never showed the trait of an unstable man.
But when his wife left him on that fateful day, he went berserk, shooting four of his colleagues, including his father-in-law, Inspector John Kande.
The father-in-law, from Benue State, is also a policeman serving in the same barracks as his son-in-law.
His daughter got pregnant for the Borno-born Sergeant Bello two years ago, and the two became a couple having two children and living together.
Then, Sergeant Bello went after him. He escaped the shooting with a bullet on his leg, but two others were not so lucky. They died on the spot. One of them was shot in his stomach by the rampaging police sergeant who was protesting the abandonment of his wife with gunshots.
A neighbour of the police sergeant told newsmen that trouble started on the morning of March 2 when the wife of the police sergeant bolted away for reasons undisclosed.
The police sergeant stormed his in-law’s home to demand that his wife returns.
The in-law, also a police officer resident in the same barracks, pleaded with the angry sergeant to wait for the mother of his wife to return home for a proper resolution of the misunderstanding.
But the police sergeant, it was learnt, accused his in-laws of planning to marry off their daughter to another man. He left furious and reported to work like every other policeman that morning.
He signed for his rifle and went to his duty post. Hours later, the unpleasant happened. The police sergeant, with his gun, stormed the Commandant’s Market in the barracks and opened fire randomly at people wining and dining there.
Two of his colleagues died instantly while one person was brutally injured with bullet wounds.
The police sergeant then marched with his gun to his in-law’s duty post where he also shot at him. The in-law managed to escape with bullets lodged inside his leg.
Sergeant Bello was not done. Having run out of bullets, he went to his in-law’s apartment and set it on fire. The fire affected three other apartments.
The police sergeant has now been apprehended and detained at the State Criminal Investigation Department.
