Unidentified gunmen in the early hours of yesterday shot at a vehicle, killing three occupants and leaving the Benue State correspondent of BusinessDay newspapers, Benjamin Agesan, unconscious with bullets wounds. It was gathered that Agesan, who was returning to Makurdi from Katsina-Ala, had boarded a bus but on sighting his close friends who were also returning to Makurdi, he disembarked to follow them apparently in a bid to save cost.

According to Agesan’s colleague, Comrade Jerry Iorngaem, the vehicle Agesan later joined was conveying local tax collectors who were carrying huge sums of money and gunmen were unknowingly trailing them. A passenger in a vehicle that plied same route told newsmen that their vehicle kept a distance after suspecting that the gunmen were trailing the vehicle before shooting at it sporadically. One of the bullets punctured the tyres and caused the car to summersault into the bush.

“The gunmen then ransacked the entire vehicle killing three occupants while monies in the passengers possessions were taken away leaving the journalist in the pool of his blood,” he said. The Guardian gathered that Agesan had been taken to Benue State University Teaching Hospital, Makurdi for treatment. However, efforts to get reaction from the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Sewuese Anene, failed as she said she was not yet briefed of the incident as at press time.

Meanwhile, suspected herdsmen have invaded a village, Gulma in Arugungu emirate and killed a businessman, Alhaji Yusuf Garkar-Bore, while kidnapping his daughter-in-law, Aisha Yusuf. A member of the family who pleaded for anonymity for security reasons said the suspected kidnappers invaded the community at about 2:00 a.m. and attacked the home of the 65-year-old Garkar-Bore, shooting him in the chest and abducting his son’s wife.

“Alhaji was shot severally in the chest; we took him to Argungu General Hospital for treatment but he was confirmed dead; he has been buried according to Islamic rites on Sunday,” he said, adding that no information has been received on the whereabouts of the abducted woman. “We do not know her whereabouts now because the kidnappers have not contacted the family.”

When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in the state, DSP Nafiu Abubakar, confirmed the incident. ”We are aware of the incident and our men have been drafted to the scene,” he said, adding that no contact had been established with the criminals.

•Excerpted from a Guardian report.

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