Seven soldiers were ambushed and killed by terrorists on the dreaded Abuja-Kaduna Expressway.
It was learnt that the attack happened close to the Zuma barracks along the road in the Suleja area of Niger State in the early hours of Wednesday.
Former lawmaker, Senator Shehu Sani, in a post on his Twitter handle said he got information that bandits had blocked the road.
He wrote: “Just got a distress call that Bandits in large numbers have again blocked the Kaduna-Abuja road this afternoon. Travellers are speedily turning backwards.”
A military source said the commanding officer had received a distress call and sent his men to the scene.
The source said contrary to the speculation that the barracks was overrun and some soldiers killed, it was an ambush close to the facility.
The source said, “The commanding officer received a distress call on the activities of bandits around the Diko area, which is not far from the Zuma barracks. He deployed men but unfortunately, they were ambushed and seven soldiers died in that ambush. There was, however, no attack on the barracks as speculated. The incident happened between 4am and 5am on Wednesday.”
However, the Kaduna state government debunked the news as fake.
Samuel Aruwan Commissioner, Ministry of Internal Security and Home Affairs said the fake news was presented by a group of social media enthusiasts who celebrate negative news.
“The preliminary operational feedback showed that fleeing bandits escaping a military onslaught attempted to pass through a narrow corridor around Kasarami general area of Kaduna-Abuja road.
“The troops, on receiving this intelligence, hurriedly moved to the location and engaged them in the adjoining forest.
“The Kaduna State Government will update members of the general public when more detailed feedback is received.
“The Kaduna State Government does not deny the existence of security challenges, and continues to work assiduously with relevant military and security agencies”, Aruwan said.
On Monday, terrorists bombed an Abuja-Kaduna train, killing eight people, injuring scores of passengers and abducting an unspecified number of others.
The bandits had last week invaded the Kaduna International Airport and killed a NAMA staff member.
They stopped a Lagos-bound plane from flying. It took the intervention of soldiers to repel them after hours of gun battle.
