Police in Ekiti State on Saturday confirmed an attack by gunmen on travellers on Friday night.
Spokesperson for the state police command, ASP Sunday Abutu, said the gunmen shot the driver of a Lexus 330 SUV dead and went away with two other occupants of the vehicle.
The attack took place between Ewu-Ekiti and Aiyetoro-Ekiti, neighbouring communities in Ilejemeje and Ido/Osi Local Government Areas of Ekiti state, according to a witness.
Abutu said the police, in conjunction with local hunters and operatives of Amotekun Corps, were combing the forest around the scene to rescue the victims and possibly arrest the gunmen.
A witness said five persons were aboard the vehicle when they were attacked by suspected herdsmen while returning from a social function.
The vehicle, with registration number LAGOS KRD 264 GV, was left at the scene facing the bush with only a dead body inside.
The identities of the abducted passengers had yet to be ascertained at the time of filing this report.
The incident occurred four days after gunmen also suspected to be herdsmen shot and killed a man identified as Ademola Afolayan on a poultry farm in Ikere-Ekiti on Monday, August 2.
He was reportedly shot dead at about 5pm by gunmen numbering about five, who invaded the poultry located within Eselemo Farm, Igbo-Oka, by Akure road, killing Afolayan as they shot sporadically. Two persons were said to have narrowly escaped the Monday incident.
Also, a former Ekiti State Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, Comrade Clement Adekola, escaped death by the whiskers when his vehicle was attacked on Tuesday, August 3, also at about 5pm.
The gunmen opened fire on Adekola’s vehicle as he was traveling along Ikere-Igbara Odo Road, in Ikere Local Government Area of Ekiti State.
Recently, kidnappers allegedly abducted some travellers in three commercial buses on Akure/Ikere-Ado Ekiti road in Ekiti State.
