Gunmen suspected to be bandits were reported to have killed a commander of agro ranger of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in Benue State.
The deceased was identified as Mike Ode.
The incident happened at Shaapera community in Gwer West Local Government Area of the state.
The deceased uncle, Nicholas Ode, disclosed that his brother was brutally killed in Shaapera village in Gwer West LGA on Monday, adding that the corpse had been deposited at the morgue of Benue State University Teaching Hospital, Makurdi.
He said, “We were told that he went for a special assignment at Shaapera village. It was there that they had a confrontation with the herdsmen and during the gun duel, they confirmed that the NSCDC officers were able to kill up to 10 of the bandits.
we were told that one of the four civil defence guys, which is my brother, was gunned down while others escaped.”
The NSCDC Command Public Relations Officer, Mike Ejelikwu, confirmed the incident, adding that the death of the personnel would not deter the command from performing its constitutional mandate of providing security for every law-abiding citizen in the state.
He said, “NSCDC has a specialised squad called the Agro Rangers located across Gwer West, Logo, Apa, Kwande, Guma, among others, to provide security for Agro-allied investment, be it animal husbandry or crop production.”
He added that the deceased was killed during a gun duel with the bandits but added that there was heavy casualty on the part of the bandits.
“We lost one agro ranger who incidentally was the commander of the operation,” he said, adding that the command was already in touch with his family.
“The persons suspected to have committed such atrocious crimes against the state of Nigeria with already over-burdened security challenges were kept in a guest house in Abuja, instead of lawful custody of the Department of State Service or any other approved custodial facility.
“The escape of the Binance executive from the Office of the National Security Adviser using a ‘smuggled passport’ is, to say the least, most disappointing, embarrassing and disturbing as it portrays the porosity of the security architecture of the country to the world.
“Weeks after the unfortunate escape and inability of the security forces to re-arrest Nadeem Anjarwalla, the Kenyan Police arrested him on April 22, 2024, as the International Criminal Police Organisation moved to extradite him to Nigeria soon to face the allegation levelled against the company.”