Gunmen in the early hours of Friday shot to death the director of operations of the Kaduna Geographic Information Service (KADGIS), Malam Dauda.
Dauda was killed at his residence in Barakallahu community along the Kaduna – Zaria highway some kilometres out of Kaduna metropolis, Igabi local government area of the state, when five men stormed into the area and shot him.
The gunmen, who came in their numbers, were said to have found their way into the director’s private residence through a different way other than the house gate where the guard was stationed, and killed him without taking any valuables away from the house.
Blueprint gathered that the gunmen after killing the government official also attacked a nearby community, but there was no casualty.
Confirming the incident to journalists in Kaduna, the District Head of Barakallahu community, Alhaji Muhammad Abdullahi, said the Divisional Police Officers (DPOs) of Rigachikun and Barnawa Police Divisions, who are residents of the community, have visited the scene of the crime.
“This is simply a case of assassination because they went to only the victim’s house, killed him and left the community, they did not take anything in his house neither did they attack the guard and his wife. Even the other village that was attacked, no life was lost, they just caused commotion and left. We feel they just did that to make it look like the usual attack.
“We have been facing various security breaches in the community informed by the vast ungoverned land taken over by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF). You know we were in court; we won at the High Court, but they appealed the case at the Appeal Court here in Kaduna,” he said.
He called on the state government to intervene in the matter between the community and NAF over the vast land which he said had remained a hiding place for criminals.
The state’s police public relations officer (PPRO), ASP Muhammad Jalige, had not responded to inquiries on the assassination as of the time of filing in this report.
In a related development, gunmen, again on Thursday night in Enugu killed a vigilante at Meniru area of Agbani Road.
In the afternoon of the same day, three policemen who went to rescue a kidnapped victim were also shot dead at the Loma Linda Estate axis.
The late vigilante head simply called Ogbonna Ani alias Jango was killed in his house, when the gunmen invaded his residence.
The late Mango, as he was notoriously known, was said to be a dreaded thug in the 90s during the reign of former Governor Chimaroke Nnamani.
“Before his demise, he used to patrol with the security agents to hunt for unknown gunmen. Maybe they have ganged against him,” a source in the area said.
“During the time of Chimaroke, he was a dreaded thug. It was a surprise that he was killed because nobody knew that he could be killed by any man,” another source said.
Efforts to get the police image maker, Daniel Ndukwe, to comment on the development proved abortive as he neither picked his calls nor returned the same.
