Gunmen in the early hours of Wednesday, shot dead a police personnel and one commercial motorcycle rider near Etenyi village in Igumale district of Ado Local Government Area of Benue State.
Daily Trust reports that in recent years, the area had come under attacks by kidnappers, armed robbers and bandits to the extent that a police station in the area at one time was ransacked by robbers who killed many policemen on duty.
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Witnesses said the latest incident happened around 6:30am, following an ambush by the gunmen along the Rijo- Ogege bridge on the way to Igumale, the Ado LGA headquarters.
The locals told our correspondent by telephone that the deceased police man was going to resume duty at the Igumale Divisional Police Station when he ran into the armed men while the cyclist was on his way to Otukpo town.
A villager narrated that he was at Etenyi village immediately after the local government secretariat when suddenly he heard gunshots.
The villager, Joseph Agbo, said for fear of the unknown, he retreated to a safer location and that in less than five minutes, a police van drove into the station with two bodies – a police and a motorcyclist.
When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) for Benue Command, DSP Catherine Anene, confirmed the incident and the killing of a policeman as well as a civilian.
Anene told our correspondent in Makurdi by telephone that some hoodlums who might be on a mission to cart away arms had opened fire on a police van and killed one personnel.
She said the second deceased, a civilian may have fallen to a stray bullet as the gunmen shot sporadically at whatever was in sight.
The PPRO however posited that the other police occupants of the van were able to repel the hoodlums and restore calm in the rural community.
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