Gunmen kill three policemen, sack police station

Unknown gunmen have attacked a Divisional Police Station in the Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna State, killing three policemen, including a woman.

The gunmen were said to have attacked the police station at about 11.30pm on Monday and broke into the cell, freeing detained suspects.

“The gunmen stormed the police station in a commando style. They fired shots indiscriminately; we were clearly over-powered and we flee,” a policeman at the station during the attack said.

Our correspondent learnt that two policemen died on the spot during the attack while another one died on the way to St. Gerald Hospital, Kaduna.

Kajuru is about 30 minutes drive to Kaduna metropolis.

A source who would not want his name in print said some of the policemen who escaped the attack had to disguise themselves by pulling off their uniforms and ran into a nearby bush.

The source, a policeman, said, “We were not many and we couldn’t stand their sophisticated weapons. They killed three of our colleagues; an inspector and a sergeant were killed. Two of our colleagues sustained serious injuries and were rushed to the hospital in Kaduna. A female police officer died on the way to the hospital.

“They came around 11:30pm yesterday (on Monday) and they operated for about one hour. It was the mobile police located in a different location that save the situation; otherwise they would have started attacking residents of the town.

“If not for the intervention of the mobile police, it could have been hell for the residents of the area. They were many, they came in vehicles and they released all the suspects being detained in the cell and some of us immediately removed our uniforms and pretended as if we were also some of the suspects in the cell. That was how we survived, others managed to escape into the bush.”

Another source said it was unbelievable that the gunmen could attack the police station without any hindrance despite the presence of military operatives at various check-points on the road.

“Kajuru is just a 25 or 30 minutes drive from Kaduna, there are many checkpoints along the way, from Kaduna to Kajuru down to Kachia, Zonkwa and the entire part of the southern Kaduna, so it baffles us when things like this happened without any arrest,” he said.

Kaduna State Police Command’s Public Relations Officer, Aminu Lawan, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, confirmed the attack but said that the command was yet to get details of the attack.

 “We are still assessing the details and we will let you know when we are through,” he told our correspondent on Tuesday.

Kaduna State Governor Muktar Yero, in his reaction, urged security operatives in the state to launch an investigation into the incident and arrest the perpetrators.

Yero, who was on on-the-spot assessment on Tuesday, condemned the attack and urged the residents of the area to remain calm. He assured them that the state government was determined to tackle the activities of criminals bent on creating tension in the state.

“This ugly trend has to stop and we are committed to bringing the perpetrators of this attack to book,” he said.

The governor also promised to foot the hospital bills of the victims of the attack  being treated at the St. Gerald Catholic Hospital.

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