Nineteen Traffic Marshals, working for the Gombe State government on Tuesday sustained various degrees of injuries in clashes with a group of policemen in Gombe.
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Mr Babaji Dunama, General Manager of the Gombe State Agency for Social Services and Other Related Matters, made the disclosure in an interview. in Gombe, the state capital.
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He said that the clashes followed a disagreement between the police and the marshals at the Cross Roundabout in Gombe town.
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The marshals are youths, employed by the State Government to perform sundry duties such as assisting in controlling traffic and enforcing environmental sanitation laws.
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Dunama alleged that the marshals were attacked by the police while performing their duties.
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The general manager said that when he tried to ask the police to stop harassing the marshals, the policemen threatened him.
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He said that shortly after he left the place, the problem degenerated with the policemen beating marshals on duty.
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Dunama said that after the incident at the roundabout, eight vehicles filled with police men went to his office at the Ministry of Youth and Poverty Alleviation and ransacked it while every marshal they saw there was beaten.
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He alleged that the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of the Gombe Command, Mr Baba Yola, led the policemen to commit the act.