Gunmen shot dead a Nigerian armed force general as he was going via vehicle on a major road from the capital, Abuja, the military said on Friday, in the first of such lethal firearm assault on a senior serving military official.
Banditry and kidnappings for ransom, especially in the northwest, have become so incessant that many are hesitant to go by road. Developing cross country rebellion drove lawmakers in April to prevail on the president to proclaim a state of emergency.
Major General Hassan Ahmed was killed when gunmen attacked his vehicle along the Lokoja-Abuja road on Thursday, armed force spokesman Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu said in a statement. Lokoja, 200 km (124 miles) south of Abuja, is the capital of Kogi state.
Nwachukwu didn’t say who was going with Ahmed, or how far outside of Abuja he was, yet local media said the perished general was with his driver and a family member.
Ahmed was a director at armed force headquarters, and had earlier filled in as the military’s Provost Marshal. While two retired generals were shot dead last year in attacks as they went by road, no serving general had recently been killed as such.
The uncertainty in northwestern Nigeria is joined by Islamist insurrections in the north east that the Unified Nations says have left 350,000 individuals dead over 12 years.
In the nation, clashes between roaming dairy cattle herders and farmers have killed thousands and uprooted about 500,000 people over the last decade, as per French medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres. In the southeast, a new spate of assaults on police has set off feelings of dread of a re-visitation of war and state-authorized viciousness.
