Two expatriates, two company drivers and two Police Inspectors were sent to their early graves, on Friday night, during an ambush on the West African Ceramic Company, Ajaokuta, Kogi State, by gunmen.
An unspecified number of persons were also allegedly kidnapped during the attack.
In Imo State, four policemen were killed when gunmen invaded the Agwa Police Division, Oguta Local Council in the state.
The Ajaokuta attack came a week after the killing of three policemen and five Vigilante group members by gunmen in Jida Bassa and last Wednesday’s kidnapping of three children in Kaduna Estate, in Ajaokuta Steel township complex in the same council area.
The Guardian reliably gathered that the gunmen ambushed the company’s workers at about 7:00pm and killed six occupants inside the coaster bus conveying them to their various locations.
According to eyewitnesses, the gunmen who came in two vehicles started shooting sporadically after killing the occupants of the bus.
The sources said the gunmen then moved into the already demobilised bus and kidnapped an unspecified number of workers and took them away to an unknown place.
“The source said: “It is another black day for us in Ajaokuta. We are still mourning the killings of seven officers, and the kidnap of three children. Now, another tragic incident has happened.
“The deceased and kidnapped victims were going back to their Niger Bridge Estate before they were ambushed. They are working with the West African Ceramics. The Police officers exchanged gunfire with these criminals, but unfortunately, two of them were killed alongside the two Indians and two drivers inside the vehicle.
A source, who gave the name of one of the drivers as Muhammed, added that three foreigners were among those taken into the bush by the gunmen.”
The State Police Public Relations Officer, SP William Ovye Aya, who confirmed the incident in a statement, said that the Commissioner of Police, Edward Egbuka, had visited the scene of the incident and directed the deployment of operational assets, consisting of operatives of the Police Mobile Force, Counter Terrorism Unit, Quick Response Unit, and the State Intelligence Bureau, in synergy with other security agencies to restore normalcy in the area.
