Three officers in a joint security patrol team are missing and two others injured after they were ambushed by armed herdsmen in Benue State.
The Benue Police Command said the incident occurred at 2:19 p.m. Wednesday along the Daudu–Uikohol Expressway in the Guma Local Government Area of the state. The team was on routine patrol when they spotted a burning settlement two kilometres from the expressway and as they approach the location they were attacked by the armed herdsmen.
In the ensuing shoot-out a police inspector and an NSCDC officer were hit and were evacuated to the Benue State University Teaching Hospital, Makurdi for treatment. But one policeman and two NSCDC officers remain unaccounted for.
The patrol team, which included operatives from the Police Mobile Force (13 PMF, 58 PMF), State Intelligence Services (SIS), Operation Zenda, Counter-Terrorism Unit (CTU), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Benue State Civil Protection Guards, and local vigilante groups, was on routine operation when they spotted burning houses approximately two kilometres from the expressway.
Meanwhile in Zamfara a joint team of the Nigeria army and police beat back hundred of bandits who were invading a village.
According to security sources three policemen died while 30 bandits were killed in the encounter, which occurred on Wednesday.
