Boko Haram insurgents have ambushed the monitoring team of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, who were inspecting the installation of A national grid in Shiroro LGA, Niger.

NSCDC spokesperson Babawale Afolabi, in a statement on Tuesday, said the team was also escorting expatriates returning from a mining site but were found in the bush around Dagwachi when over 200 terrorists, armed with sophisticated weapons, opened fire at the convoy from a hill in Kaduna.

The NSCDC team was said to have been deployed to protect the national grid installations that had suffered recent attacks and vandalism that had landed the country in several nationwide power blackouts.

“The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps’ monitoring team for the national grid installation located in Shiroro local government area of Niger state have come under a heavy attack by the deadly Boko Haram terrorist group.

“Unknown to them, over 200 dreaded armed Boko haram elements had laid ambush on a vengeful mission against security operatives who they claimed had been giving them problems. 

“And from the top of a hill located at Farin-Kasa, they opened fire upon sighting the long convoy of the NSCDC monitoring team using different sophisticated weapons,” said the Civil Defence.

It said the team, composed of nine officers and 71 other ranks from several NSCDC commands, were returning to their base after completing their surveillance activities in Shiroro when they were ambushed at Farin-Kasa area of Chukun LGA in Kaduna.

The statement said the NSCDC operatives “repelled the attack and successfully neutralised over 50 of the terrorists in the crossfire.”

“As of the time of filing this report, about seven operatives of the NSCDC are currently missing in action, and efforts are currently underway to locate them in the bush, while a few others who sustained various degrees of injuries are currently undergoing medical treatment in a medical facility,” the NSCDC statement added.