Former Customs and Police Chiefs, family members killed in Yobe

Former and serving officials of security agencies appear to the targets of militants as a former Area Comptroller of Nigeria Custom Service, Waziri Ajiya, his son, Dr. Ibrahim Waziri, as well as a retired ASP of Police, Mohammed Haruna, his wife and three children were all killed on Saturday inside their respective homes.

Ajiya and his son were both shot dead along Gombe road after they were abducted from their residence in Nahuta Quarters, Potiskum, Yobe state capital while Haruna and his family were killed at Sabon Layi area of
Potiskum, after some gunmen trailed him to his house.

A resident who spoke on condition of anonymity said the gunmen stormed Ajiya’s house at about 1:30 a.m., kidnapped him and his son and took them to a forest along Gombe road where they were killed.

An eyewitness said: “The gunmen ransacked all the rooms in the house and carted away large sums of money and jewelries. They insisted that the wives should be killed also. But, one of his sons, Ibrahim, a medical doctor, resisted and saved the women. They finally succeeded in overpowering the son. They tied him and his father up. They dragged them outside, along Fika Road, and shot them.”

Yobe state commissioner of Police, Patrick Egbuniwe, confirmed the killings.

He said “The hoodlums are trying to adopt the same operation like the one they did in Damaturu which we stopped,” adding that efforts were being made to track the assailants.

Spokesman of the Joint Task Force in the state, Lieutenant Lazarus Eli, also confirmed the incident.

Yobe, a large unsafe state has been under a dusk to dawn curfew due to widespread attacks.

Earlier in the year, Unknown assailants killed another senior customs officer in the state.

The then State police commissioner Lawan Tanko confirmed that Adamu Amadu, a Comptroller of Nigeria Customs Service for Yobe and Borno states, was killed when gunmen stormed his house in the Garin Daji
district of Potiskum, a major city in Yobe.

Amadu’s bodyguard was also killed in the incident.