Nigeria: Senior officials with secret police, anti-graft squad killed as election draws near

Nigeria: 2 senior security officials killed

KANO, Nigeria — Two high-ranking officials with Nigeria’s secret police and its anti-graft agency have been killed by unknown attackers.

Officials in the northern city of Kano say a senior officer with Nigeria’s State Security Service was killed along with three members of his family early Monday. Two others escaped.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the nation’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said Tuesday that one of its senior officers was killed in nearby Kaduna, but offered no other details.

The violence comes as the West African nation’s election draws near. Nigeria will elect a new president in January, and elections often bring violence in Africa’s most populous nation.