The late senior army officer was killed while returning to Abuja without an escort.

The Nigerian Army has announced the death of one of its senior officers, Major General Hassan Ahmed, in an attack by an armed gang on the Lokoja-Abuja highway, Abuja, North-central Nigeria.

A former Provost Marshall of the Nigerian army, Ahmed was a director in the army headquarters until his death.

A statement by Onyema Nwachukwu, the army’s spokesperson, said the assailants opened fire on Ahmed’s car in Abaji, Federal Capital Territory when he was returning to Abuja from Okene in Kogi State without an escort on Thursday night, July 15,2021.

Daily Post reported that he was travelling with his sister, Safrinia Ahmed who was later kidnapped during the attack.

Nwachukwu’s statement, however, did not mention the alleged kidnap.

Meanwhile, Nwachukwu said Lieutenant General Faruk Yahya, the Chief of Army Staff, along with the Armed Forces, expressed their grief over the loss of General Ahmed, who is to be buried on Friday around 10 a.m. WAT at the Lungi Military Cemetery in Abuja.

“A delegation from the Army Headquarters led by the Chief of Policy and Plans (Army) Maj Gen Anthony Omozoje has visited the widow and other members of the bereaved family,” the army spokesperson said.

Ahmed’s death comes two months after Lieutenant General Ibrahim Attahiru and other top-ranking military officers died in a plane crash in Kaduna.

Battling a 12-year insurgency in the northeast and rising criminalities across the country, Nigerian soldiers have often been targeted for attacks.