Gunmen suspected to be kidnappers have shot dead a former Local Education Secretary (LEA) of Nasarawa Local Government Council of Nasarawa state, Salihu Suleiman and abducted scores of others along Buga-Gyaragba road, near Gadabuke in Toto Local government area of the state.
A resident of Buga village, who preferred anonymity said the incident happened around 10:34 am on Monday, when the gunmen in their large numbers with sophisticated weapons emerged from the bush and mounted a road block along the axis.
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He said the former education secretary was driving in his private vehicle after he left Toto on his way to Nasarawa, in which he rammed into road block mounted by the Kidnappers.
He said the Kidnappers immediately forced the deceased out of his car and whisked him away along side scores of other kidnapped travellers into the bush at gunpoint, saying the deceased was shot dead after his abductors forced him to continue trekking inside the bush.
” And it was after trekking for some hours, when the deceased told his abductors that he is tired and can’t walk again and decided to sit down, in which one of the Kidnappers now opened fire and killed him on the spot,” he said.
According to him, the corpse of the deceased was found by farmer from the community who was on his way to farm and rushed back home to alert the community.
He said vigilante members immediately mobilized alongside some security agents to the bush and conveyed the corpse to Nasarawa town.
The chairman of Toto local government council, Alhaji Nuhu Adamu, confirmed the kidnap and killing of the former Nasarawa education secretary via telephone interview with our reporter.
“Actually, I received a phone call about the abduction of former Nasarawa education secretary along Gadabuke road by armed bandits, even though am I am yet to get details about the incident because I am out of the town,” he said.
When contacted, the spokesman of the Nasarawa state police command, ASP Ramhan Nansel, told our reporter via telephone that police men were drafted to the scene and recovered a Rover car with registration number NTT 265 AA and two phones.
“Meanwhile, somebody now recognized the vehicle that it belongs to one Dr. Jibril Haruna. And so he was suspected to have been kidnapped, ” he said.
According to him, the state commissioner of police has directed the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in Toto local government, the Area commander and the anti- kidnapping unit of the state police mobile force to go into the forest and search the area in order to ascertain if the victim was actually abducted.
“And it was this morning that one corpse was recovered at the scene,” he said.
The police spokesman, however, denied that scores were abducted, saying the state command has been in contact with its men along the axis.
