Suspected members of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) were killed in a gun duel with the police at Omuma, hometown of Governor Hope Uzodimma, in the wee hours of Sunday.
According to CSP Mike Abattam, Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in Imo, the gunmen were killed in an attack on Omuma police station in Oru East Local Government Area of the state.
“On 20th March, 2022 at about 0300 hours, Hoodlums suspected to members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra/ Eastern Security Network terrorist group came in large numbers with various calibres of Improvised Explosive Devices ( IED) to Omuma police station shooting sporadically but, were swiftly repelled by the police.”
“The Police Operatives engaged the hoodlums in fierce gun duel and in the process four of the bandits were neutralised on the spot while other escaped into the bush having suffered a huge defeat, with a number of them sustaining various degrees of bullet wounds.”
He said charms and five undetonated different capacities of Improvised Explosives Devices were recovered from the neutralised bandits.
The police, he said, are currently combing the bush to apprehend the fleeing gunmen.
The incident happened barely 24 hours after gunmen bombed Umuguma Divisional Police Headquarters in Owerri West Local Government Area of the state, killing two officers.
Also on Saturday, gunmen razed the country home of the President of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Prof. George Obiozor, in Awomamma community, still in Oru East LGA.
Commenting on the incident, Uzodimma blamed desperate politicians, whom he said would be hunted down soon.
In a statement he personally signed, Uzodinma regretted that desperate politicians who believe in violence were yet to sheath their swords in spite of repeated appeal to that effect.
He bemoaned the incessant resort to violence in settling political differences by some politicians in the state, and warned that the government would no longer condone such banditry.
According to him, “The time of those who unleash this kind of mayhem in the state is over. We shall hunt them down to face the full weight of the law”.
Uzodinma wondered why the bandits should attack the home of a man who is not a politician but a statesman working for the good of the entire Igbo race.
He said it was shameful that both the sponsors and perpetrators of the violence deployed their malicious attack on an innocent man.
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