Another three police officers have been killed by unidentified gunmen in Abia State, Nigeria’s South-east.
The police spokesperson in the state, Geoffrey Ogbonna, who confirmed the killing to PREMIUM TIMES, Wednesday, said the attack occurred in Abiriba, Ohafia Local Government Area of Abia State on Monday.
The officers were ambushed and their patrol vehicle set ablaze. The gunmen fled with the rifles belonging to the slain officers.
The police are yet to make any arrest over the incident, Mr Ogbonna, a chief superintendent of police, said.
The Vanguard newspaper identified the slain officers as Austin Ugwu and Longinus Ugochukwu, both of them inspectors, while the third, Ama Ifeanyi, was a constable.
The three were serving at the Abiriba Police Division, the paper said.
The latest incident brings to six, the number of police officers killed within a month in Abia by yet-to-be identified gunmen.
Two officers were killed on February 23 and some rifles stolen when gunmen attacked a police station in Aba.
Also, some gunmen on February 1 attacked Umuoba Police Station in Isiala Ngwa North Local Government Area of the state and killed a police inspector.
“No part of Abia land will be ceded to criminals operating under any guise and we will not spare any resource in ensuring that the perpetrators of this dastardly act are brought to book in no distant time and the stolen arms and ammunition recovered completely.
“Sadly, the arms these hoodlums have carted away from law enforcement agents will most likely be used against innocent citizens,” the Commissioner for Information in Abia, John Kalu, had said in a government response to the February 23 attack.
The spate of attacks against officers and police facilities in the South-east and South-south regions of Nigeria has compounded the worsening insecurity in the regions.
Nigeria has been battling kidnapping, banditry, frequent clashes between herders and farmers, in addition to the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-east.
