Three men of the mobile police force attached to Igarra Division of Edo State Command have been shot dead, leaving one badly injured, in a fierce gun battle with gunmen.
The News Agency of Nigeria reported that one of the assailants also died during the duel, while another sustained gunshot wounds and has been taken to an undisclosed hospital for treatment and interrogation.
The incident reportedly occurred between 5:30am and 6am on Thursday, while the policemen were resuming for duty at a roadblock near the popular Agor market, along the Igarra-Auchi road.
The checkpoint was reportedly established to check activities of kidnappers in the area who combed farm settlements in the area for kidnapping and ransom collection.
It was gathered that upon the policemen arriving, with some in a car driving in and another one riding on a motorcycle behind the car, the assailants who had apparently laid ambush opened fire on them and the duel began.
The policeman on motorcycle was said to have engaged the assailants who fled into the bush carting with four rifles of the policemen that were killed.
Following the attack, men of the local vigilante were called for reinforcement.
After combing the bush, they were able to trace the assailants to their hideout, where they recovered the four police rifles and another two belonging to the attackers.
The head of the local vigilante group in the area, Ibukun Dogo, narrating the incident, said, “I got a call from the DPO around 6am that his men were attacked and we quickly mobilized to the place and saw the lifeless bodies of the three officers.
“We saw blood markings on the ground into the bush and we trailed that blood stains to a hideout of the suspects where we met two of them with gunshot injuries, one died from the gunshots while the other was taken away by the police to the hospital.
“We recovered the four police rifles and additional two in the area we found them.
“The suspect said they are from Okene, in Kogi State, but we don’t know their mission whether it is armed robbery or kidnapping they wanted to use the arms and ammunition for.”
As at the time of filing this report, the State Police Command were yet to release a statement about the incident.
