Lagos - Gunmen have ambushed a local politician and shot him dead along with his wife and son in restive central Nigeria, hit by waves of ethnic violence and Islamist attacks, police said on Friday.
The attack that killed John Baren, chairman of a local branch of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, occurred in the Riyom area of Plateau state.
“The man was killed in an ambush by gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen on Wednesday evening,” police spokesman Abuh Emmanuel told AFP. “The assailants also killed his wife and son during the attack.”
No group has claimed responsibility for the killings, the latest in the area in recent months.
Waves of violence between mainly Muslim ethnic Fulanis and Christian ethnic groups have rocked central Nigeria in recent years. There have also been a number of attacks attributed to Islamist group Boko Haram.
Plateau lies in the so-called middle belt region dividing the mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south of Africa's most populous nation and top oil producer. - Sapa-AFP