- Two other officers, who were not in the open during the attack, managed to escape by crawling through the maize field.
BY GODWIN OBI
Terror struck Kebbi State on Monday as suspected gunmen shot dead a Nigeria Customs Service officer at the Fingila checkpoint in Dandi Local Government Area.
Witnesses told Frontline Reporters that the armed men, numbering about seven and riding on motorcycles, first stormed nearby farmlands where they harassed farmers in a bizarre encounter.
“They entered the farms and forced farmers to taste their own food,” said Malam Abdulrasheed, a resident of Fingila village. “After taking a bite, the gunmen ate the rest and ordered the farmers to abandon their work, warning there would be no farming that day.”
The assailants later advanced to the main road, where they found the Customs officer sitting near a mosque. What followed was a chilling execution.
“The first shot missed, but as the officer tried to run into a maize field, the second bullet struck him. A third shot inside the field ended his life,” Abdulrasheed recounted.
Two other officers narrowly escaped death by crawling through the maize field. Though they sustained minor injuries, locals say their survival was nothing short of miraculous.
The slain officer, said to be from Maiduguri in Borno State, was widely known in the community for his habit of resting near the mosque where the ambush occurred.
The attack has heightened fear in Dandi LGA, where farmers and security personnel alike now face increasing threats from marauding gunmen.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
