The Kaduna State Police Command confirmed the gruesome death of a National Youth Service Corps member, Grace Chalya Silas, by unidentified assailants in the state on Thursday.
In an interview, the Command’s spokesman, ASP Mansir Hassan, isaid that the state Police Commissioner, CP Musa Yusuf Garba, has ordered a manhunt for the Corps member’s murders.
Chalya Silas, who is serving her one-year required national service in the state, was alleged to have been stabbed to death on Wednesday while running at Barnawa in Kaduna South Local Government Area.
Friends and classmates at the University of Jos expressed their condolences on Facebook.
One of them, Comfort Elisha, wrote on her Facebook handle, “No na. What is really happening to Jossite and the Special Education department? We haven’t finished mourning Kekefas Emmanuel, and now it’s Chalya, brutally killed in Kaduna during her morning jogging while serving her fatherland. May your killers know no peace Chalya. This is too much to bear.”
However, the Kaduna Command’s Public Relations Officer, ASP Mansir Hassan, while confirming the incident to The PUNCH, described the death of the Corps member as “tragic”.
Hassan said the Commissioner of Police, CP Musa Yusuf Garba, after an emergency meeting of the top hierarchy of the command, had ordered the Barnawa Divisional Police Officer and operatives to hunt for the killers of the Corps member.
The police spokesman said, “It’s a very tragic incident. She was performing her early morning jogging(exercise) when some miscreants(phone snatchers) on motorcycles pounced on her.
“The victim’s name is Grace Chalya Silas. She was a Corps member serving in Kaduna South.
“When the case was reported to the police, operatives responded swiftly and moved to the scene of the crime where they saw the victim in the pool of her own blood. She was rushed to the clinic, where she was later confirmed dead.
“Since the incident was reported to the police, the Kaduna State Commissioner of Police, CP Musa Yusuf Garba, held an emergency meeting with the top hierarchy of command over the matter. We are already in touch with NYSC in the state.
“The CP has directed the Barnawa DPO and Area Commander, to immediately hunt for killers of the Corps member and fish out the perpetrators of the dastardly act.”