How gunmen attacked Benue police station, killed officers

Fear currently pervades Igumale community in Ado local government area of Benue State following an early morning attack on the only police station in the rural settlement, in dire need of infrastructural presence.
Daily Trust reports that the inhabitants are yet to recover from the horrible nightmare occasioned by gunshots which rented the air for several minutes in the early hours of last Sunday. When the shootings subsided and some natives mustered courage to step out of their homes, they discovered that the Igumale Divisional Police Station was the target of the attack and all four police officers on duty had been ridden with bullet by unknown gunmen.
A teacher who lives in the neighbourhood, AdayiOgalegwu, told our correspondent that the incident happened at about 12:55am.
“We suddenly heard gunshots; it was so loud that everyone in my household woke up. We didn’t know what to do because we could not comprehend what was going on. We stayed indoors, shivering and panicking until dawn.
“When we got to the scene in the morning, all four policemen on duty were in a pool of blood, none of them was dead at that time. But while they were being taken for medical attention, one of them from Kaduna State gave up the ghost,” Ogalegwu narrated.
He said that reports reached the community later that three of the four wounded officers died while one was receiving treatment at the Federal Medical Centre in Makurdi, adding that the men could have been saved if they had gotten medical help on time.
According to Ogalegwu, the unfortunate incident was the second in two years as a similar attack by gunmen who carted away arms and ammunition from the same police station happened in 2014 except that no one was killed in the previous invasion.
The teacher is however worried over the fear that presently engulfs his community, as the police have continued to arrest young men following the Sunday incident.
“At least eight young boys have been arrested from Igumale by the police. Fear now grips the villagers such that from 6pm nobody is seen outside their homes.”
Another indigene, AgbeseOnazi, told Daily Trust that a team of policemen deployed from the state headquarters have taken over the town and are arresting people who defy the curfew placed in order to restrict movement.
Benue State Police Command Spokesman, ASP Moses Yamu, who confirmed the incident, said the gunmen were believed to have come from outside the state to attack the four policemen on duty.
He said two of the policemen died on the way to hospital for medical attention while the remaining two are still receiving treatment.
Yamu, who said that the corpses of the deceased officers have been deposited at the morgue and that investigation into the matter had commenced, however said that nobody had been arrested in connection with the incident but that the command had stepped up machinery to recover the arms and ammunitions carted away by the gunmen.
He added that the police are liaising with members of the Igumale community to recover the stolen arms and to ensure that absolute peace prevails in the area even as the state Commissioner of Police, Bashir Makama, had paid on-the-spot assessment visit to the scene of incident.