Many people had been reportedly killed, and property destroyed when the IPOB security men clashed with police officers and soldiers in Orlu.
The Hausa community in Orlu, Imo State, on Tuesday accused the operatives of the Eastern Security Network established by the outlawed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, of killing four of its members on Monday.
Many people had been reportedly killed, and property destroyed when the IPOB security men clashed with police officers and soldiers in Orlu.
A member of the community, who gave his name as Yusuf for security reasons, said it took the military's intervention to stop the carnage.
He said bodies of the victims, recovered by the military and handed over to Hausa leaders in the town, had been buried in accordance with Islamic rites.
"All the corpses were recovered from their business stands," he said.
Narrating how the incident broke, Yusuf said: "It all started on Thursday when people in the town resisted paying a levy imposed on them by IPOB. Angered by their action, they went to burn the palace of Orlu Eze."
Yusuf recalled that during the #ENDSARS protest, the Hausa community in Imo lost over 40 people, saying the media did not report it.
Speaking to SaharaReporters, IPOB's Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, accused Governor Hope Uzodimma of working with the Army to 'flush and attack ESN officers from the bushes where they are operating'.
He said five innocent people were killed while properties worth millions of naira were destroyed in the area.
He said, "ESN personnel are in the bush and forest chasing Fulani terrorists and herdsmen who are over there terrorising our members and sisters in their respective farms, not Nigeria security agencies, but they are looking for ESN's trouble.
"Since the formation and inauguration of ESN by our great leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, on December 12, 2020, they have been inside the bushes and forests; their job is to protect farmers from invaders who made pronouncements that all lands in Nigeria belong to them.
"Every time, Nigerian Army, police would come and look for their trouble in the Bush. Yesterday, they came to Orlu where civilians were doing their normal business thinking that ESN would allow them to do what they did in Obigbo, Rivers State during #EndSARS protest. ESN would not allow what happened in Obigbo happen again in any part of Biafra. They were busy killing innocent people in Orlu yesterday, they killed about five innocent people and destroyed properties worth millions of naira in Orlu yesterday."