By DADA AYOKHAI
The Nigerian Army has confirmed the loss of a personnel during an attack on their military Hilux vehicle by yet to be identified gunmen in Benin City, Edo State .
The confirmation was made by the Assistant Director of Army Public Relations, Yemi Sokoya through a press statement .
An unknown gunmen had on Wednesday attacked their Hilux vehicle in broad daylight at the popular Akpakpava axis of Benin, Edo state.
The statement said
“The attention of the Nigerian Army (NA) has been drawn to a series of inaccurate narratives in the media space in respect to the attack on a military Hilux vehicle at Akpakpava road in Benin City Edo State by some armed gunmen on Wednesday 23 August 2023,”
According to the statement, contrary to speculations, a clerk from the 4 Brigade finance office and a driver went to town to fix the office printer and also stopped at a bank to process and collect a bank statement.
“The armed gang in a red Toyota Camry car who must have trailed and noticed that the soldiers were not armed, opened fire on the vehicle, at a traffic light junction probably thinking the soldiers were carrying the money; but when they discovered the vehicle was empty, they zoomed off.”
The army further confirmed that some of the bullets hit the driver in the chest and he lost his life in the hospital.
While several reports claimed that the robbers carted away huge sums of cash, the army described them as “entirely false as no cash was involved”.
