The police officers were killed as they prepared to repel an attack on Maru town in the northwestern Nigerian state.

A terrorist group has shot dead the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) and a police inspector of the Zamfara State Police Headquarters in Maru town, Zamfara State, Northwest Nigeria. Other casualties include a vigilante member and a civilian.

HumAngle gathered that the terrorists had attacked and abducted an unspecified number of people around Bakin-tasha, a market in Maru, at about 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 5. While the police were preparing to repel the attack, the terrorists stormed the station. DPO, Superintendant Raheem Kazeem and his staff inspector Rabiu Umar of Maru Police Division were killed in a gun duel.

“The attack in Maru town resulted in the loss of three lives including DPO, a Police Inspector Rabiu Umar of Maru Police Divisional Headquarters and the kidnapping of an unspecified number of people,” Mansur Ibrahim Maru, a resident, said.

“The DPO was such a young, very gentle, friendly, and simple man. He has been very committed to his duty. My interaction with him was around November last year on an official matter, and he was accommodating and actively devoted,” another resident, Mahmud Yunus Kadauri, told HumAngle.

Residents said the armed gang came in large numbers and attacked the town both at Bakin-tasha and the police station.

The spokesperson of the Zamfara State Police Command, Muhammad Shehu, confirmed the incident and added that the “Command is making a thorough investigation into the heinous crime and would bring the culprits to book.”

The remains of the police officers have since been moved to Gusau Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Gusau, the state’s capital city.