This is the second time bandits are Killing a senior police officer in Katsina State this year.
Armed persons killed the area commander of the Dutsin Ma Police Area command, Aminu Umar, in an ambush on Tuesday morning.
Mr Umar, an assistant police commissioner, was killed alongside one other officer.
Family sources told PREMIUM TIMES that the body of Mr Umar was handed over to his relatives in his home town in Dabai, Daja Local Government Area of Katsina State, on Wednesday morning for burial.
The spokesperson of the Katsina State police command, Gambo Isa, also confirmed the death of the two officers in a statement.
A resident of Safana Lawali Shamsu said the police officers were alerted by some motorists that they saw some bandits on motorcycles heading to Zakka community in Safana Local Government Area
“Unknown to the policemen, the bandits had divided themselves into two. While some of them went into the village, a large number of them were asked to stay outside the village and take out threats,” he said.
He said the policemen “killed” several bandits but the two police officers were killed by “a few of the bandits hiding on some trees.”
Though he did not provide further details about how the police commander was killed, Mr Isa, the police spokesperson, said there were more than 300 gunmen with assault rifles.
He said the slain officers were killed while on a “clearance” operation.
“Consequently, the Area Commander and one other gallantly lost their lives during a cross-exchange of gunfire,” he said
Not the first
PREMIUM TIMES reports that Mr Umar was not the first senior police officer to be killed by gunmen, called bandits, in Katsina this year.
In February, a deputy superintendent of police, Abdullahi Rano, was killed in an ambush while he was leading police officers to repel an attack on Magama Jibia town.
Mr Rano was killed on his way back to the Jibia main town to bring reinforcement. In that attack, two other policemen and a civilian were killed while two soldiers were wounded.
Katsina, like most North-west states and a part of North-central Nigeria, has witnessed several bandits attacks in the past few years.
Efforts by both conventional and unofficial security agents to combat the menace have proved not enough just as security containment measures taken by the governors of the states failed to achieve the desired results.