A vigilante commander, Alhassan Alhassan, was shot dead during a gun battle with kidnappers inside a forest in Tanahu community under Gegu-Beki Chiefdom in Kogi Local Government Area of Kogi State.
A member of the vigilante group, who was part of the operation but preferred anonymity, said the incident happened on Tuesday around 11am.
He said the vigilante commander led his boys into the forest to dislodge the kidnappers that had been terrorising villagers of neighbouring Aduho and Tanahu.
However, he said the kidnappers laid ambush immediately they sighted them coming and started shooting at them and that his team responded with fire and in the fight his commander was shot in the abdomen.
The vigilante, who further said the remains of their commandant, were taken to his Toto home in Nasarawa State and buried according to Islamic rites, added that some of the kidnappers sustained bullet wounds.
The Onyiwo of Gegu-Beki Chiefdom, Alhaji Mohmmed Abba Suleiman, confirmed the incident through telephone with our reporter.
The spokesman of the Kogi State Police Command, CSP Williams Ovye Aya, did not pick several calls nor reply to an SMS sent to his phone.
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