The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Gunmen

  • Gunmen allegedly kill accounting officer

    Gunmen have allegedly killed an accounting officer at Emure Local Government Council, Ekiti State, Mr. Abayomi Ajayi.

    He was said to have been killed on Wednesday about 8pm on Ikere-Ise Road while returning from office.

    The Nation learnt that two other workers of the council were kidnapped.

    Read also: PSC gets 242, 455 applications for 10,000 police job

    Sources said the abducted victims are the Coordinator of the state Primary Health Care, Dr. Fashina and the Administrative Officer, Pastor Onaade.

    The kidnappers have demanded N10 million ransom each from the families of those kidnapped.

    Command spokesman Caleb Ikechukwu said investigation had begun.

  • Gunmen kill six persons in Plateau communities

    Gunmen have killed six persons in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau State in fresh attacks on two communities.

    The two communities are: Nding village, in Fan District, and Dorong village, in Foron District, in Plateau North Senatorial District.

    The attacks, which occurred on Sunday, were the third within one week.

    They brought the casualty figure to 10, as four persons were killed in the first attack on December 27.

    In the latest attack, an eyewitness at Nding, who spoke in confidence for security reasons, said: “Around 6:30 p.m on Sunday evening, the Youth Fellowship of Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) in Gassa and Nding communities of Barkin Ladi Local Government Area were reported to have been ambushed at Nding’s bridge when the unsuspecting victims were returning from a Christmas celebration at the Wildlife Park in Jos, the state capital.

    “We gathered that the attack claimed the lives of four persons while the injured were conveyed to a hospital by sympathisers.”

    Though the attackers could not be identified, some survivors accused herdsmen for allegedly terrorising residents of Fan District and its environs before the Yuletide.

    In the Sunday attack, which occurred at 10 p.m, some hoodlums reportedly invaded Dorong community of Foron District with guns and machetes.

    The attack led to the death of Miss Janet Markus and Dung Pam, according to eyewitnesses.

    Confirming the killings in a statement, police spokesman Terna Tyopev, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), said: “On December 30, around 1815 hours (6.15 p.m), the Plateau State Police Command, Jos, received a distress call from Samson Bitrus of Gwom Nding village that on the same date at 1800 hours (6 p.m), some gunmen attacked a Peugeot 504 station wagon on the way to Nding village.

    “Police Commissioner Austin I. Agbonlahor immediately assembled a team that raced to the scene of the crime but discovered that the attackers had left the scene.

    “On the scene of crime, three persons were seen motionless and they were immediately taken to the Barkin Ladi General Hospital where they were confirmed dead by the doctor on duty. “Three injured persons were also taken to the hospital. Of the three injured persons, one of them died while receiving treatment. The remaining two persons in the hospital are responding to treatment.

    “The residents are advised to go about their lawful businesses and volunteer information that could lead to the timely arrest of the perpetrators of this dastardly act to face the full weight of the law.”

    The police could not confirm the attack on Dorong villages, where two teenagers were reportedly killed.

     

  • Gunmen attack Ekiti APC Assembly candidate

    An All Progressives Congress (APC) House of Assembly candidate in

    Ekiti State, Mr. Tajudeen Akingbolu, has escaped being killed by gunmen suspected to be armed robbers who invaded his Ado-Ekiti residence on Boxing Day.

    Akingbolu, who is the APC Assembly candidate for Ekiti West Constituency 1 said the gunmen stormed his house in Olorunda area of the city at about 8.30 pm and pointed a gun at his eight-year-old daughter.

    Narrating his ordeal to reporters yesterday, Akingbolu, a former caretaker chairman of Ekiti West Local Government, said he was answering the call of nature in the toilet when the unwanted guests came.

    According to him, he had to remain in the toilet when he learnt of the way the suspected bandits were commanding members of his household and beating some of them in the process.

    The immediate past Assistant Legal Adviser of Ekiti APC said his wife, children and siblings who were at home at the time of the invasion, are yet to recover from the shock of the attack.

    Akingbolu disclosed that he has reported the incident to the Oke Ila Divisional Police Headquarters in Ado-Ekiti.

    He said: “It was nothing but the grace of God that I’m alive to tell the story. I had just closed for the day and immediately I entered, I went to the toilet.

    “I had hardly settled on the closet when I started hearing unusual command in my sitting room. Of course, I didn’t need anybody to tell me what was happening.

    “I decided to stay put in the toilet but my elder brother, a panel beater and painter, Mr. Muri Akingbolu, who was in the adjoining room with another elder brother who was sick, came out to find out what was happening.

    “As narrated by my wife and cousins, one of the two armed men used mask but the other didn’t.

    “One of them pointed gun at my brother and before he could say anything, he was beaten blue and black while other members of the family were asked to lie down.

    “In a jiffy, they collected all phones in the house, including the one I was charging. They collected N40,000 from brother Muri, which according to him belonged to one of his customers.

    “At this point, they pointed the gun at my wife and threatened to waste my children if she failed to cooperate.

    “She led one of them to the room but they later asked my brother to follow her, from where they collected additional N47,000 and one jean trouser, which I just bought.

    “However, the tragic part of the story was the fact that my eight-year-old daughter was the first person they pointed gun at and up till now, the poor girl is still in shock.”

    Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Caleb Ikechukwu, said investigation has commenced on the incident.

     

  • Gunmen kill 10 gendarmes in Burkina Faso

    Gunmen killed 10 Burkinabe gendarmes in a village near the Malian border this week, Burkina Faso’s security ministry said.

    The assailants attacked and set fire to a school on Wednesday night in Loroni, a village about 250 km (155 miles) Northwest of the capital Ouagadougou, the ministry said in a statement late on Thursday.

    Two patrols of gendarmes, or military police, were sent to arrest the attackers but ran into an ambush on Thursday morning that killed 10 of them and wounded an unknown number of others, it said.

    The attack was a further sign of deteriorating security in a country once seen as one of the region’s more stable.

    Security has worsened in Burkina Faso in recent months, primarily due to Islamist militant attacks near the landlocked country’s porous border with Mali.

    Ouagadougou has also been hit by several major attacks over the past three years.

    Thousands of people have fled their home as a result of the attacks and reprisals by Burkinabe security forces, Human Rights Watch reported in May.

    Violence in West Africa’s semi-arid Sahel region continues to mount five years after France intervened in Mali, a former French colony, to drive back Islamist militants who had seized the country’s desert North.

    France retains about 4,000 troops deployed across its former colonies in the arid Sahel region as part of the anti-terror Operation Barkhane.

  • Gunmen kill APC chieftain in Rivers

    The Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ward 7, Onne, Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers State, Jonah Chu, has been shot dead.

    Chu was reportedly killed by gunmen on arrival in his home after attending a function on Sunday evening.

    Police spokesman Nnamdi Omoni confirmed the incident.

    He said the police have deposited the remains in a mortuary, adding that investigations have begun.

    Read also: Two suspected kidnappers nabbed in Kaduna

    “The APC ward 7 chairman in Eleme was killed on Sunday evening when he returned to his house from a function.

    “The police were alerted shortly after, but before our men could get there, the assailants had escaped. We recovered the body and deposited it in the mortuary.

    “Investigations into the killings have begun, but nobody has been arrested,” Omoni said.

  • Gunmen kill ex-Chief of Defence Staff Alex Badeh

    Driver also killed in Abuja-Keffi Road attack

    Air Chief commiserates with family

    A former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Air Chief Marshal Alex Sabundu Badeh, has been shot dead.

    He was said to have been killed with his driver on the Abuja-Keffi highway. He was 61.

    According to a top military source, Badeh was returning from his farm when his vehicle came under attack.

    The source said the ex-CDS was without a military escort expected of his rank because he went to his farm.

    It was learnt that the late Air Chief Marshal was rushed to a hospital at the military cantonment popularly called Abacha Barracks, where he was pronounced dead.

    A statement by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) also confirmed Air Chief Marshal Badeh’s death.

    The statement by NAF Director of Public Relations and Information Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola said: “ It is with a heavy heart that I regretfully announce the unfortunate demise of former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Sabundu Badeh, who died today, 18 Dec 18, from gunshot wounds sustained when his vehicle was attacked while returning from his farm on Abuja-Keffi Road.

    “On behalf of officers, airmen and airwomen of the Nigerian Air Force, the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, commiserates with the family of the late former Chief of Defence Staff over this irreparable loss.

    “We pray that the Almighty God grants his soul eternal rest. Details later.”

    The ex-CDS was killed barely a month to the opening of his defence on the alleged N3.97billion fraud preferred against him by the Federal Government.

    The court fixed January  16, 2019 for his defence after his application for a no-case submission failed.

    Badeh was admitted into the Nigerian Defence Academy as a member of the 21 Regular Course on 3 January 1977, and was commissioned Pilot Officer on 3 July 1979. He began his flying career at the 301 Flying Training School on the Bulldog Primary Trainer aircraft in 1979. Between 1981 and 1982, he attended the Undergraduate Pilot Training at Vance Air Force Base in the United States Air Force. He was at the 301 Flying Training School (FTS) as a squadron pilot and later became an instructor pilot on the Bull Dog and DO-228 aircraft.

    He attended the junior staff course at Armed Forces Command and Staff College in 1988. Between 1995 and 1996, he attended the senior staff course at same institution. In 2005, he was at the National War College Nigeria as a member of Course 14 and graduated in August 2006. The Air Marshal holds an M.Sc. degree in Strategic Studies from the University of Ibadan.

    Badeh was Commander of the Presidential Fleet during the Olusegun Obasanjo presidency.  As Chief of Air Staff, he initiated Optimizing Local Engineering (OLE 1 and 2) to focus on developing indigenous Unarmed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and other weapon systems.[citation needed] The OLE teams consisted of Nigerian Air Force officers with PhDs and master’s degrees in various fields of aerospace design, avionic and armament specializations from the Cranfield University in the UK. In February 2016 Alex Badeh was accused of financial misappropriation by the EFCC during his tenure as service chief. Badeh has denied involvement in any misconduct

     

  • Gunmen attack Kaduna village

    Gunmen have reportedly attacked Ungwan Paa-Gwandara village in Jema’a Local Government, Kaduna State on Sunday night.

    Mr Joshua Paul, a resident of the community told the News Agency of Nigeria in Kafanchan on Monday that the attack was at a wedding ceremony at about 8:00 pm.

    An unconfirmed number of people were said to be affected in the attack.

    Read Alos: NASS: Workers cut off water, power supply

    Mrs Victoria Martins, a victim who was being treated at the General Hospital in Kafanchan, told NAN that women and children were affected.

    Confirming the report, Chairman of Jema’a council, Mr Peter Averik, told NAN on telephone that he was yet to be fully briefed on the incident.

    He said that security agents had since been drafted to the affected community.

    Efforts to get the reaction of the police on the incident was unsuccessful.

  • Gunmen terrorise motorists, others in Ondo

    Suspected kidnappers and robbers at the weekend invaded Akure-Owo-Oba-Akoko-Ikare Road and operated with impunity.

    Sources said some lecturers of the Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo (RUGIPO) narrowly escaped being abducted on the spot where their colleague was abducted and killed last Sunday.

    Observers said the development might not be unconnected with the recent dismantling of the military checkpoints across the state, which they believed had given criminals freedom to operate within the last one week.

    Between Owo-Oba-Akoko-Akungba-Akoko, it was learnt that robbers and kidnapers waylaid passengers.

    The Nation learnt that some were abducted; others were robbed.

    Over 20 gangsters were said to be at spots on the highway, shooting sporadically and causing confusion among travellers.

    It was gathered that some of the hoodlums wore masks.

    One of the victims, Ogunsemore Ayewumi, a zonal forest officer (ZFO) for Ikare-Akoko, who was travelling to Akure for the weekend, said he was kidnapped and his car left on the road, adding that victims were taken inside the bush.

    The captors of Ogunsemore reportedly demanded N15million ransom.

    A source at Oba-Akoko said many of the victims went for a ceremony at Ikun-Akoko and were returning when they were abducted and robbed.

    Two traditional rulers, Olubaka of Oka, Oba Adebori Adeleleye and Oloba of Oba-Akoko, Oba Nurudeen Adegoroye, condemned the incident.

    They called on the military to comb criminals’ hideouts at Ago Ajayi forest and flush them out.

    The Nation learnt that the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Oba-Akoko had been removed and replaced by another officer, possibly due to incessant kidnapping and robbery

    On Owo-Ore Road, people were said to have escaped at Ogbese/Iluabo axis around 5:20pm on Saturday evening.

    Children and those who were unlucky to run out of their vehicles were reportedly taken to the bush by the kidnappers.

    A RUGIPO lecturer, Dr. Rahman Abubakar, who escaped from the gunmen at Iluabo, near Akure, said one of his colleagues from the Marketing Department was abducted.

    The lecturer, who expressed worry about insecurity in the area, said the government must tackle the matter.

    Police spokesman Femi Joseph confirmed the incident.

    He said the command was on the trail of the kidnappers.

  • Gunmen kidnap six Osun College of Tech workers

    Gunmen on Tuesday evening kidnapped six workers of the Osun State College of Technology, Esa-Oke.

    The Nation learnt that during the kidnap, the hoodlums killed one of the victims, while one later regained freedom.

    The search for the four others has begun.

    It was gathered that the victims were ambushed on their way home after work at a spot called Eti-Oni, near Agric and Onibonje area, along Ijebu-Jesa Road.

    The deceased, a non-academic worker, Emmanuel Olaniyi, was shot dead by the abductors when he attempted to escape.

    The institution, in a statement yesterday by its spokesperson, Wale Oyekanmi, listed the kidnapped victims as Mr. Olaleye Olalekan (Business Administration Department),  Adeyeoluwa Bankole (Head of Civil Engineering department), Dr. Jesuola Ajibola (Director, OSCOTECH Ventures), Adenreti Chukwu (Secretary of Civil Engineering department), Rachael Onyinocha Akinboboye (OSCOTECH Microfinance Bank) and a yet to be identified worker.

    In a phone interview, Police Commissioner Mr. Fimihan Adeoye said officers and men had been deployed in the area to rescue the remaining victims.

    The Nation learnt that the gunmen had called the institution for ransom, which was not disclosed for security reason.

  • Gunmen kill doctor, wife

    Gunmen have killed a doctor and his wife in Yola, the Adamawa State capital.

    Dr. Mwajim Malgwi, the proprietor of Polyclinic in Jimeta, Yola, was killed alongside his wife by yet to be identified gunmen near Boggare village, Jimeta, as they were returning home from a meeting with farm workers last Saturday.

    An associate of the deceased, Ibrahim Walye, who disclosed the killings yesterday, could not give details, but a source said the gunmen, who were in a tricycle, waylaid the couple and killed them.

    Police spokesman Othman Abubakar confirmed the incident.

    He said nobody had been arrested, adding that his men were investigating the incident.

    Dr. Mwajim was the commissioner for health in the state from 1988 to 1989. He was in his 70s.

    The deceased’s family was expected to issue a statement on the incident last night.