A commander of agro ranger of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in Benue State, have been murdered by some gunmen suspected to be bandits.

The deceased was identified as Mike Ode.

It was reported that the incident happened at Shaapera community in Gwer West Local Government Area of the state.

The deceased uncle, Nicholas Ode, disclosed that his brother was brutally killed in Shaapera village in Gwer West LGA on Monday, adding that the corpse had been deposited at the morgue of Benue State University Teaching Hospital, Makurdi.

He said, “We were told that he went for a special assignment at Shaapera village. It was there that they had a confrontation with the herdsmen and during the gun duel, they confirmed that the NSCDC officers were able to kill up to 10 of the bandits.

“Unfortunately, we were told that one of the four civil defence guys, which is my brother, was gunned down while others escaped.”

This incident was confirmed by Mike Ejelikwu, the NSCDC Command Public Relations Officer, adding that his demise  would not stop the command from performing its constitutional mandate of providing security for every law-abiding citizen in the state.

He further said, “NSCDC has a specialised squad called the Agro Rangers located across Gwer West, Logo, Apa, Kwande, Guma, among others, to provide security for Agro-allied investment, be it animal husbandry or crop production.”

Mike noted that the deceased was killed during a gun fight with the bandits but that there was heavy casualty on the part of the bandits.

“We lost one agro ranger who incidentally was the commander of the operation,” he said, adding that the command was already in touch with his family.