Gen Alkali: How Army recovered officer’s body from abandoned well

The remains of the missing Senior Army officer, Major General Idris Alkali(rtd) has been found by a team of the Nigerian Army on Search and Rescue Operation. This is coming after the officer had been declared missing since September 2018.

The remains of the officer was found in an abandoned well in a bush at Guchwet village in Shen Du District of Jos South Local Government Area of Plateau State.

The Garrison Commander 3 Division, Rukuba Barrack who also doubles as the Commander of the Search and Rescue Operation, Brigadier General Umar Mohammed, on Wednesday said one of the suspects who took part in the relocation of the corpse was declared wanted and voluntarily submitted self to the Police and led the Joint Team of Army and Police on Tuesday to the well site.

Mohammed said, “You know General Idris Alkali was declared missing on the 3rd of September, 2018, since after that, the Nigerian Army gave us 3 tasks, one was for us to find General Alkali dead of alive, two, to find his vehicle which was a Toyota Corolla, and number three, if anything happened to him, to find those who are responsible for anything that happened to him so that they can be prosecuted.

“On 29 September, 2019 we recovered his vehicle and his personal effects were seen, also a shallow grave was discovered in which General Alkali was initially buried.

“Some people were declared wanted, some have submitted themselves voluntarily and some people who took part in the relocation brought us to where he was relocated.

“And base on that, he was relocated to an abandoned well which is behind me.

“We came in this morning, we drained the water and we were able to salvage the body which is the remains of General Alkali. This means the first two aspects of the tasked have been accomplished”, he explained.

“The 3rd phase is the prosecution of all those who took part in this heinous act.

“Let me tell you that nobody, no matter how connected the person is, whoever is involved in this heinous act will go unpunished”, he stressed.

“For those who did not submit themselves, let me tell them that we are on their trail.

The remains of the officer was kept inside a body-bag and was shown to journalist under strict directives, and were not allowed to snap any pictures.

Also a military parade was carried out at the well site in honour of the deceased before he was taken inside a police ambulance.