Kano – Gunmen have killed a policeman in a raid on a police station in central Nigeria, in the latest such attack in Africa’s most populous country, the police said.
The attackers on Friday used explosives to destroy part of the station in the town of Eika-Ohizenyi in Kogi state, then engaged officers in a gunfight, Kogi state police spokesman William Ovye Aya said in a statement later the same day.
“A police inspector died in the exchange of fire with the hoodlums,” before they were repelled with the assistance of police reinforcements, he said.
Police have launched an investigation into the incident to find the perpetrators, he added.
Criminal gangs and jihadists have repeatedly attacked police stations and orchestrated jailbreaks to free detained comrades in Kogi state.
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For several years, the Islamic State jihadist group’s local affiliate ISWAP has been carrying out attacks in the area, outside its traditional stronghold in the country’s northeast.
In 2017, gunmen attacked the same police station in Eika-Ohizenyi, killing two police officers and a community leader.
In September last year, attackers managed to free some 200 detainees from a prison in the nearby town of Kabba, prison authorities said.
And in April, three policemen were killed when gunmen attacked a police station in the town of Adavi, an incident for which ISWAP later claimed responsibility.
Nigeria’s military is fighting a 12-year-long jihadist insurgency in the northeast.
Heavily armed criminal gangs also carry out looting raids and mass kidnappings in the northwest and north-central parts of the country.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Getty Images
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