Following the killing of ASP Tapu Godfrey, a police officer, in Sandirde village, Gassol local government area of Taraba State, resulting from an ambush by local vigilantes, the state was plunged into grief.

A special strike force squad linked to the Government House in Jalingo was ambushed by the vigilante group on May 4, 2024, when they were out on a normal patrol. SP Jamu Emmanuel served as the team’s leader.

In a press release on Wednesday, Assistant Superintendent Tapu Godfrey, identified as “AP/NO 191462,” was hurt in the lap by “the vigilante group shooting sporadically,” according to David Iloyanomon, the State’s Commissioner of Police.

Godfrey was taken to the General Hospital Sandirde for medical attention by detectives from the Gassol division, who were escorted to the spot shortly after the ambush and led by the DCO. Sadly, when the ambulance arrived, they found him dead.

The next day, members of 40PMF Jalingo, the Deputy Commissioner in charge of Operations, and the Commissioner of Police set out to gather information in Gassol. In order to plan how to catch the attackers and create a roadmap for bolstering security in the local government region, they convened with stakeholders.

Since then, the State Police Command has used operational and intelligence resources to make sure that the perpetrators who carried out the unprovoked attack were caught and prosecuted, calling it “despicable and unwarranted.”

In addition to expressing sympathy to the officer’s friends and family, the Police Command promised the public that “no stone will be left unturned in combating crime and criminality.”