There was confusion at the Imo State secretariat following a clash between operatives of the Ebubeagu Security Network and men of the Imo State police command.
Many civil servants who had resumed work after the two-day sit-at-home order by the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) were wounded in an ensuing melee.
It was gathered that the incident started with a mild argument when a policeman accosted the Ebubeagu operative for ‘over-using his power’, and it soon degenerated into a fight and shooting of guns.
According to an eyewitness, an operative of the Ebubeagu group was dragged by a group of policemen near the state’s Attorney General’s office.
Soon after, a group of operatives of Ebubeagu appeared and engaged the policemen in a scuffle. They started shooting sporadically in the air, but nobody was hurt.
The witness said as a result of this, there was a stampede at the Secretariat that led to some workers sustaining various degrees of injuries.
Another eyewitness said that the policemen accused operatives of the Ebubeagu of over-exercising their powers and usurping the job of the police command.
However, the Imo state government has debunked news of gunmen attacking Imo workers at the state Secretariat during working hours.
Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Oguwike Nwachuku, in a statement, said what was witnessed at the Secretariat was the police trailing a suspect in a case to effect his arrest in an alleged crime when some gunshots were released in the air.
“There was no such incident involving gunmen as it is currently being peddled at some quarters. It was an attempt to effect the person’s arrest that the police fired warning shots at the Secretariat. Members of the public are therefore advised to ignore any information linking the incident to unknown gunmen as there was nothing of such,” he said.
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