NIS officer killed in Lakurawa attack buried in Birnin Kebbi

By Olanrewaju Lawal, Birnin Kebbi

Audu Hudu, one of the three Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) officers killed on Thursday night by terrorists at the Bakin Ruwa border checkpoint in Bagudo Local Government Area of Kebbi State, has been buried at Birnin Kebbi main cemetery. Hudu, originally from Taraba State, was laid to rest on Saturday in a ceremony attended by numerous sympathisers from the state NIS Command.

Multiple sources within the Command, who preferred anonymity, informed reporters that the second officer, Abbas Abubakar from Yobe, would be buried on Sunday, with his brother, a Brigadier General, present. The body of the third officer, Ande Jeremia from Benue State, is to be transported by his family to his home state for a funeral in accordance with Christian rites.

It was learnt that the victims’ corpses were moved from Bakin Ruwa to the Federal Teaching Hospital, Birnin Kebbi, where autopsy results confirmed they had been burnt beyond recognition.

An eyewitness, who requested anonymity, told reporters that the three officers were first shot by the bandits before the attackers poured petrol on their shelter, setting it – and their vehicle – alight.

“The bandits, arriving at about 11:45 pm on Thursday, two of them on a motorbike, reached the NIS checkpoint, opened fire on the officers, and later set them and their shelter ablaze along with their vehicle,” the witness reported.