BIRNIN KEBBI, Nigeria — Three personnel of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) have been brutally ambushed and killed by armed bandits while on official patrol duty along the Tsamiya–Illo road in the Bagudo Local Government Area of Kebbi State.
The tragic security breach, which unfolded over the weekend, has drawn fierce national condemnation from the former Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, who criticized the state of national security and called for the protection of frontline workers.
Okay News reports that the deceased road safety officials were formally identified as Deputy Chief Road Marshal Assistant (DCRMA) Umar Aliyu, Senior Road Marshal Assistant (SRMA) Ezra Manu Gona, and Road Marshal Assistant I (RMA I) Mansur Ibrahim Nasir. According to eyewitness accounts from local community members, the officers were conducting routine traffic and highway surveillance when a swarm of more than 20 heavily armed bandits riding on motorcycles suddenly converged on their position. Realizing the danger, the unarmed road safety marshals attempted to flee into the surrounding bush, but the assailants pursued them aggressively and shot them at close range before retreating back into the forest.
Reacting swiftly to the killings on Sunday evening, June 7, 2026, Peter Obi extended his deepest sympathies to the leadership and families of the FRSC, lamenting that the persistent degradation of safety across Nigeria continues to place frontline public servants in extreme peril.
“I extend my deepest sympathies to the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC). The relentless increase in insecurity nationwide continues to inflict severe hardship on frontline workers. Regrettably, this alarming lapse in governance is being eclipsed by prevailing political machinations,” Obi stated. “Furthermore, I unequivocally condemn this act, which exacerbates the profound and unacceptable threats to our nation’s stability. We must elevate the sanctity of human life to a paramount position within our national agenda.”
The Tsamiya axis of the Bagudo Local Government Area, which shares borders with the Benin and Niger republics, has increasingly become a volatile hotspot for coordinated militant incursions. Local community leaders noted that this marks the fifth time within a year that security personnel have been fatally targeted at their duty posts in the sector. Over the past 12 months, the region has seen more than ten officers from the Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Immigration Service, and the Nigeria Police Force lose their lives to expanding bandit syndicates and cells of the emergent Lakurawa extremist group.
While the Kebbi State FRSC Command has yet to release an official press brief regarding the logistics of the ambush, the incident has driven the state executive into an emergency defensive posture. Kebbi State Governor, Dr. Nasir Idris, convened an urgent high-level security meeting at the Government House in Birnin Kebbi over the weekend to recalibrate inter-agency intelligence sharing and combat community-level complicity. Governor Idris issued a stern warning to residents, stating that his administration will enforce the full weight of the law against internal saboteurs. “My administration will not tolerate or spare anyone found to be an informant. Anyone found culpable will face the full weight of the law, and justice will be served,” the Governor asserted.
