Posted by Reuters on
A Nigerian police officer has been shot dead by gunmen in the troubled state of Edo, where military reinforcements have been sent to halt a recent crime wave, a police spokesman said on Tuesday.
LAGOS, Jan 4 (Reuters) - A Nigerian police officer has been shot dead by gunmen in the troubled state of Edo, where military reinforcements have been sent to halt a recent crime wave, a police spokesman said on Tuesday.
Assistant Superintendent Victor Obasayi, a police spokesman from the neighbouring state of Delta who was visiting family in the Edo state capital Benin City, was shot dead by four gunmen on new year's day.
"He was shot point blank. It seems to be the crime of an organised syndicate," said Edo state police spokesman Fatai Kinyomi.
Another policeman and a soldier who were on patrol in the city were shot and injured after the attack on Obasayi and were recovering from their wounds in hospital, said Kinyomi.
Several policemen have been killed in gunfights with bandits in Edo over the past year. Violence exploded again in a two hour gunfight between gunmen and police in Benin City in December, killing one policeman.
The violence in Edo prompted the federal government to deploy a joint military and police task force to the southern state at the end of December.
Nigeria already has two other military task forces, set up after unrest in the oil-rich Niger Delta, which produces most of the OPEC member's 2.3 million barrels per day of crude.