SaharaReporters on Monday reported the killing of four policemen around 6.30 pm that evening at a checkpoint in the state.
The police in Imo State have vowed to track down the killers of four operatives and a Point of Sale (POS) operator during an attack on a checkpoint along Owerri - Onitsha Road.
SaharaReporters on Monday reported the killing of four policemen around 6.30 pm that evening at a checkpoint in the state.
Eyewitnesses who decried the incident and described the attack as "horrific" and "unacceptable".
However, reacting in a statement on Tuesday evening, state police commissioner, Aboki Danjuma through the command's spokesperson ASP Henery Okoye, vowed to go after the killers.
He said the police commissioner went to the area on Tuesday and condemned the attack, stating that the “miscreants responsible for the senseless attack have murdered peace”.
According to him, the police commissioner also vowed that the command will leave no stone unturned until the killers of the officers are brought to justice.
Okoye said the command and sister security agencies had launched a manhunt for the hoodlums believed to be members of a pro-Biafra group enforcing the controversial sit-at-home exercise in the southeast region
The command's spokesperson said, “The Commissioner of Police, Imo State Command, CP Aboki Danjuma has strongly condemned the attack and gruesome murder of four police operatives and a civilian by gunmen suspected to be members of the proscribed IPOB/ESN and has deployed the command’s Tactical Units with the available operational assets and intelligence to go all out in synergy with other security agencies and hunt down the hoodlums responsible for the attack.
“The operatives were ambushed while on routine patrol at Irete along the Owerri-Onitsha express road. They fought gallantly but unfortunately, four paid the supreme price, while a civilian was fatally hit.
“On receipt of the unfortunate incident, the Commissioner of Police immediately mobilized to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment of the ugly incident wherein the lifeless bodies of the deceased were evacuated and deposited at the mortuary for preservation while the injured victim was rushed to a nearby hospital where he is currently responding to treatment.
“The Commissioner of Police expressed sadness over the unfortunate incident and vowed that the command will leave no stone unturned in ensuring that the perpetrators are all arrested and brought to justice, stressing that the miscreants responsible for the senseless attack have murdered peace."
Following the killing of four police operatives in Owerri, Imo, Simon Ekpa, a controversial agitator for Biafra Nation, has claimed responsibility for the killings.
Mr Ekpa, who is based in Finland, founded Biafra Defence Forces and Biafra Liberation Army.
He is also the Prime Minister of the Biafra Republic Government In-Exile.
In a post on his X handle shortly after the attack, Mr Ekpa announced that members of his Biafra Defence Forces carried out the attack in Owerri.
“The Biafra Defence Forces Owerri Command has recovered weapons from the terrorists after neutralising them in numbers,” he wrote on the microblogging platform at exactly 8:50 p.m. on Monday.
Ekpa has referred to police officials as “terrorists” on several occasions.
The Biafra agitator said he and his group are demanding the withdrawal of all Nigerian security forces from Southeast Nigeria and are committed to enforcing the demand.
“If you think you will continue to use force and terrorism tactics to force us to remain in the union, this will continue to be your faith in Biafraland,” Ekpa stated, referring to the latest attack on the police.
Recently, the co-chair of Interfaith Peace and Dialogue Forum, Bishop Sunday Onuoha, opined that the federal government should lead the efforts toward extradition of Simon Ekpa to Nigeria.
Bishop Onuoha suggested that the federal government should lead the conversation on his possible extradition from Finland to Nigeria to face the law.