Gunmen kill Sergeant in Bayelsa, as search for three missing policemen continues in Zamfara

Gunmen have attacked a police patrol team along Kolo Road, Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, killing a Sergeant.
The assailants also made away with the weapon of their victim.
Spokesman of the Bayelsa State Police Command, Mr Asinim Butswat, who confirmed the development, said on Tuesday in Yenagoa that the incident took place on September 4.
Butswat said that a police corporal and a civilian were also injured in the attack, the latest in the string of militant attacks in the resource-rich Niger Delta.
According to him, the injured corporal and the civilian have been admitted in a hospital for medical attention.
“The Bayelsa State Police Command wishes to use this medium to inform the general public that on September 4 at about 8:30 p.m., policemen on vehicular patrol along Kolo 2, Ogbia Local Government Area were attacked by unknown gunmen.
“The policemen, based on a tip-off, intercepted a vehicle conveying suspected militants.
“Two of the suspects were arrested and handcuffed but resisted any attempt by the policemen to search their vehicle.
“In the ensuing uproar, members of the community gathered around the vehicle and rescued the arrested suspects and the policemen were attacked.
“The command regrettably, lost a police sergeant and arms, a police corporal and a civilian were injured and are responding to treatment in hospital.
“Members of the public are advised to assist the police in fighting crime, rather than to compound police investigation as the crowd was partly responsible for the attacked on the policemen,” Butwat said.
In a similar incident, Zamfara State Police Command on Tuesday said it had commenced massive search for three policemen who went missing after Monday’s attack on their outpost in Keta Village, Tsafe Local Government Area.
A statement by the command’s spokesman in Gusau, DSP Mohammed Shehu, denied online media reports that the policemen and their DPO were kidnapped.
“No one was kidnapped as a result of the attack on the facility,” Shehu said, and called on the general public to disregard the report.
He explained that a police outpost is not managed by a Divisional Police Officer (DPO), adding that the three missing policemen run into the bushes when the outpost was attacked.
The spokesman said “at the moment, combined units of Police Anti-Robbery Squad, Anti-Kidnapping and Mobile Force are combing the bushes in search of their colleagues as well as to arrest the gunmen.”
Gunmen reportedly brandishing heavy arms attacked Keta village on Monday afternoon but the police said normalcy had been restored and assured that the attackers would be arrested and prosecuted.