Police, yet to start investigation, says it was robbery attempt

The Head of the Science Department at the Niger State Polytechnic, Abdulrashid Abdullahi, was on Thursday killed by three gunmen on the Zungeru-Tegina highway.

Mr. Abdullahi was killed while on an official trip to Kaduna. According to his driver, Hussaini Babangida, the gunmen stopped them at an abandoned check-point after the Zungeru Bridge.

“I stopped because I thought they were security men but they immediately went for Abdullahi’s door with a machete. I tried to drive away but I heard the lecturer shout, I have been shot as they could not open his door. I drove the vehicle very fast back to Zungeru, where the lecturer was pronounced dead at a hospital,” Mr. Babangida said.

He said that nothing was taken away from them.

“It is sad that they killed my cousin for undisclosed reasons,” he added.

The state’s Police Public Relations Officer, Richard Oguche, confirmed the incident.

Mr. Oguche described the attack as a robbery attempt, saying that the police had begun investigation into the incident to bring the attackers to justice.

When contacted the state’s Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Bashar Nuhu, also confirmed the incident.

Mr. Nuhu described Mr. Abdullahi as a humble and hardworking lecturer.

The commissioner expressed his ministry’s condolences to Mr. Abdullahi’s family and the polytechnic community. He prayed that Almighty Allah would grant him eternal bliss and his family the fortitude to bear the loss.

“I’m touched by his death,” he said.

(NAN)