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Police in Nigeria's northwestern state of Katsina said they have launched a manhunt for gunmen who shot dead a leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the national ruling party, following a failed attempt to kidnap him.

Abdulhamid Sani, a local government chairman of the APC in Katsina, was shot dead on Sunday by the gunmen, believed to be bandits, said Gambo Isah, a spokesman for the state's police, in a statement early Monday.

Isah said the gunmen in their numbers had stormed the Batsari local government area of Katsina where the 55-year-old Sani was a leader of the governing party, and began shooting sporadically with sophisticated weapons.

The deceased party leader had resisted being kidnapped when he was shot dead by the gunmen, he said.

They later fled into a nearby forest. The police are combing the forest with a view to nabbing the gunmen, Isah added.