From John Adams, Minna
A vigilance group commander, Mallam Danladi Dobbo, and two others were on Friday killed by gunmen in Kpade community in Lapai Local Government Area of Niger State in a renewed onslaught by the gunmen.
Several villagers were also injured in the attack, while the gunmen who stormed a farm in the community abducted an unspecified number of locals.
Sources close to the community said the incident occurred on Friday around 3:30pm when the people were busy in their farms.
A tractor belonging to the farmers was set ablaze by the rampaging gunmen who came in their large numbers.
According to our source, gunmen ambushed the vigilance commander and his men who had gone into the forest to rescue the abducted victims; they killed him and two others. The bodies of those killed were yet to be recovered by the villagers, who appealed to the state government to deploy security agents to the area to help recover them.
The recent attack was coming barely three weeks after gunmen killed a Divisional Crime Officer (DCO) of Lapai division, and a vigilante in a similar circumstance, though there was no official statement from the state police command to that effect.
It was reliably gathered that three different helicopters were in the last one month seen hovering over Kpada community, which shares border with FCT and Kogi State before the attack on Friday.
Attempt to reach the Police Public Relations Officer of the state command, DSP Wasiu Abiodun was not successful as of the time of filing in the report as his mobile phone was switched off.
However, the Commissioner for Internal Security in the state, Mr. Emmanuel Umar, confirmed the attack, but appealed to the affected community to remain calm, as the government had mobilised security agents to the area with a view to recovering the bodies of the victims and rescue those abducted.