Bandits kill Army major, seven others in Niger

In Munya Local Government Area of Niger State on Wednesday night, bandits murdered a Major of the Nigerian Army along with seven other security personnel.

According to reports, the bandits ambushed the security personnel in Igu village.

During the attack, four military personnel, including an army major, and four vigilante members perished, according to Igu local Inuwa Danladi, who spoke over the phone.

“The bandits ambushed the joint task force as they were passing to Sarkin Pawa and opened fire on them,” he said.

He claimed that earlier in the day, there had been a gunfight between the bandits and the security personnel, and that the bandits later attacked them again.

“They ran into the ambush by the gunmen at Igu village which is 10 kilometers from Sarkin Pawa on their way back to the scene where they had earlier engaged the terrorists in a gun battle to recover the bodies of some of the local vigilantes that were missing,” Danladi added.

Danladi claimed that while the security personnel were about to rescue the remains of the vigilantes, the bandits who had been burying victims from their previous fight with them in the jungle decided to attack.

He said, “The bandits were in the bush trying to bury their dead and they ambushed and overpowered the soldiers who were going to recover the bodies of the vigilantes and only one soldier among them escaped.”

He claimed that during the incident, two patrol vehicles owned by the Joint Security Unit had their windscreens and tires shot out by the terrorists.

When reached, Emmanuel Umar, the state’s commissioner for internal security and humanitarian affairs, acknowledged that there had been a number of attacks, but he promised to obtain more information and make a comment later.