In Abia State, southeast Nigeria, gunmen beheaded a police officer.
The victim, simply known as Linus, was beheaded on Tuesday when the gunmen attacked a police team in Ndiegoro, Aba in the state's Aba South Local Government Area, according to information obtained by PREMIUM TIMES.
After briefly engaging the gunmen in a shootout, sources claim the other officers left the scene.
Later, the criminals beheaded Mr. Linus, an assistant superintendent of police who was present with the officers, and reportedly took his rifle and uniform.
GThe shooters shouted that they had declared war on the Aba police. A local resident who wished to remain unnamed told this newspaper on Thursday morning, "They beheaded the officer."
He claimed that many locals left the area out of fear.
The victim, also known as Agbalagba, was an officer who lived in Abia State and was originally from the South-east state of Ebonyi.
Residents claimed that recent clashes in the area between security forces and some criminals.
Locals speculate that the officer's beheading may have been retaliation for the local police officers' shooting death of a gunman on April 13.
Calls and a text message requesting Geoffrey Ogbonna, the police spokesperson in Abia State, to comment on the officer's beheading went unanswered.
A superintendent of police, however, Mr. Ogbonna, would later confirm the incident to Punch newspaper.
"The dastardly act is highly condemned and the public is enjoined to help with credible information on the perpetrators or anyone found with a firearm suspected to have been unlawfully obtained,†he said.
The police spokesperson pleaded with the people of the state to help them by providing "credible information" that will enable them to find the criminals.
In order to protect the identity of the informants, he also pleaded with them to call the police if they saw any non-security personnel in the area carrying a gun.