Gunmen kill one, abduct 20 passengers in Nasarawa

Gunmen have killed former Education Secretary in Nasarawa Council, Salihu Ibrahim, and abducted 20 passengers along Buga/Gwari/Gadabuke/Toto road in Toto Council of Nasarawa State.

The incident, The Guardian gathered, took place on Monday afternoon.

According to a witness, the former education secretary was travelling to Toto from Nasarawa when he was shot dead.

The Secretary of Gadabuke Emirate Council, Abdullahi Baba, said the gunmen, in their numbers, ambushed and attacked three vehicles plying the road and went away with passengers in commercial vehicles to the bush.

Ibrahim, who was also travelling alongside his friend in a private vehicle, was also taken away with others. But his body was later found in a nearby bush.

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP Ramhan Nansel, who confirmed the incident yesterday, feigned ignorance that a passenger was kidnapped.

“Around 13:50 hours, we received information that a vehicle was abandoned at Buga Gwari, Gadabuke, Toto Council. We sent our men to the scene and they recovered a Rover salon car with registration number NTT 265AA. Two mobile phones were discovered inside the vehicle, but the whereabouts of the occupants were not known.

“Somebody, however, recognised the vehicle that it belonged to his brother who left Nasarawa for Gadabuke yesterday. So the vehicle was kept at the station.”

Nansel also said that the Commissioner of Police directed the Divisional Police Oficer (DPO) of Toto to mobilise his men to start combing the bushes.

He explained that when anti-kidnapping and police mobile force were mobilised along with some hunters and vigilante, they recovered a corpse, adding that investigation was still ongoing.