The incident occurred on Thursday morning when a group of police officers were ambushed on a highway.

The Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP) on Friday claimed responsibility for killing three security personnel during an attack in Edo state in southern Nigeria.

The group says the attack on a Nigerian army checkpoint in Akoko resulted in four injuries. However, the incident was likely connected to Thursday’s ambush of police officers along the Igarra-Auchi Road in the Akoko-Edo Local Government Area.

Daily Trust had earlier reported that an officer riding behind was able to return fire after his colleagues in a vehicle were targeted.

“One died from the gunshots while the other was taken away by the police to the hospital. We recovered the four police rifles and additional two in the area we found the assailants,” the leader of a vigilante group in the area, Ibukun Dogo, was quoted to have said.

The apprehended attacker reportedly said they were from Okene in neighbouring Kogi State. ISWAP has previously carried out a series of attacks against security forces and civilians in Kogi.

In Sept. 2022, the group also targeted police personnel and burnt a patrol vehicle in Akoko-Edo Local Government.

Over the past year, ISWAP cells have carried out assaults and planted explosives in several towns, particularly in the country’s North-central, far away from its center of gravity in the northeast.