The attack on the Nigerian Defence Academy, the country's elite officer training school, is a blow to a military that is battling jihadists in the northeast and heavily armed criminal gangs in the northwest.

"The security architecture of the Nigerian Defence Academy was compromised early this morning by unknown gunmen," said Major Bashir Muhammad Jajira, spokesman for the academy in Kaduna state.

"We lost two personnel and one was abducted."

An internal army message seen by AFP said a lieutenant commander and a lieutenant were killed and a major was abducted. Another officer was also wounded.

The academy statement said only that the attack had been carried out by "unknown gunmen".

No group claimed responsibility for the academy assault, but northwest and central Nigeria are facing a surge in attacks by criminal gangs known as bandits who raid villages, loot cattle and carry out mass kidnappings for ransom.

Those armed groups are motivated by financial gain, but there are signs of growing ties between them and Islamic militants in the northeast.

The 12-year-long war with jihadists in the region has left over 40,000 people dead and forced around two million more from their homes.