Five military men have been killed in Ihiala, Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State, by people suspected to be members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB.
Daily Trust gathered that they were killed in the early hours of Saturday.
Consequently, military personnel blocked the River Niger Bridgehead, Onitsha, obstructing traffic flow in and out of the state as a result, an eyewitness told Daily Trust.
The eyewitness, however, said the military later opened the bridge for traffic to flow at about 12 noon on Saturday.
No Newspapers
Meanwhile, Newspaper vendors in Awka have decried the stoppage of vehicles conveying newspapers from Lagos to the state at the bridgehead.
Miss Nneka Okoye, a vendor at Aroma junction, Awka said the situation had disrupted their business for the day.
“We are surprised to face this kind of problem this morning. As you can see, there is no Saturday paper on display here now.
“The distributors told us that the vehicles carrying newspapers were stopped at Bridgehead, Onitsha because of issues the military had with people at Ihiala,” Okoye said.
Apart from vehicles carrying newspapers, others were equally blocked from moving in and out of Onitsha in the early hours of today.
When contacted, DSP Tochukwu Ikenga, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Anambra State Command, said that the early morning gridlock at the head bridge was as a result of stringent checks by security operatives there.
According to Ikenga, the measure was meant to track bad elements.
Sit-at-home order
In the meantime, the directive by the leader of IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, for a sit-at-home was not effective in Awka, as people were seen going about their normal business.
Kanu had directed the southeasterners to observe a sit-at-home from Friday to Monday.
People in Awka resumed their normal business without any molestation by anybody or group immediately after the expiration of the monthly sanitation observed in the state.
A resident, Mr Mike Uche, said that he heard about the sit-at-home order but said nobody is observing it.
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