Posted by By Geoffrey Anyanwu, Awka, VAL OKARA, Owerri on
At least three persons suspected to be members of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and.....
At least three persons suspected to be members of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and two policemen died on Sunday in Nnewi, Anambra State, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu's home town, when hoodlums stormed the Otolo Police Station, sacked policemen and set the building ablaze.
Also, the hoodlums released 14 suspects from the police cell and set ablaze four vehicles.
According to Anambra State Acting Commissioner of Police, Mr. John Haruna, who spoke with reporters during the visit of Governor Peter Obi and Assistant Inspector General of Police, Ade Ajakaiye, to the scene, the hoodlums were heavily armed and also came in more than 10 vehicles.
Narrating what happened, CP Haruna said: "Yesterday (Saturday) about quarter to two, two lorries filled with some persons very much suspected to be MASSOB members arrived suddenly. Four buses were following them behind. Four other buses were at the other end and there were four other lorries. They disembarked from the vehicles and headed for the police station.
As usual, I told my men that when they see people surging like this, they should open fire on them and that we did. They continued to surge seriously and two men were killed directly opposite here and one up there. They were fast enough to pick them to wherever they were hiding. So many of them condoned the station and up to the barracks. We did all we could to defend our property.
"A total of 14 suspects were released by them. Four vehicles were destroyed. It is unfortunate that it happened the way it happened. As you can see, the place is porous. Ordinarily, a police station is expected to be fenced with some level of security, which is what is lacking here," he said.
Haruna further said that the hoodlums camped at the abandoned prison yard in Nnewi, adding that when the police got there, they had left. He also noted that some of the hoodlums were armed with sophisticated weapons, such as AK47 assault rifles, pump action guns and machetes, adding that the injured policemen have been taken to the hospital for treatment.
Speaking with reporters, Governor Obi alleged that most of the activities of the hoodlums were sponsored by influential politicians.
"It has been discovered that key participants in this disturbances, who are sponsoring this are a group of disgruntled politicians, who benefit from this confusion, come from Nnewi, Atani, Oraukwu and Ozubulu," Obi said.
He, promised that the state government would settle all medical expenses of the injured policemen as well as meet with the families of the dead officers. He promised to renovate the police station that was destroyed by the hoodlums.
Meanwhile, the leadership of MASSOB has raised a fresh alarm that the Federal Government plans to kill its leader, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, currently being detained at Keffi Prison, Nasarawa State. It alleged that the recent order by the government to transfer Chief Uwazuruike from Keffi Prison to the State Security Service (SSS) custody, in Abuja was a grand design to eliminate him.
In a press statement signed by the group's deputy director of information, Mazi Chris Mocha, MASSOB said that the order to move Chief Uwazuruike from Keffi Prison was the making of the director general of SSS, Colonel Kayode Are (retd).
Mocha alleged that the assistant controller of prisons in Nasarawa State was not aware of the order, stressing that there was a sinister motive behind the plan.
"We are holding the director general of State Security Service (SSS), Col Kayode Are (retd), assistant director, internal security of SSS, Mr. Adeola Iyaji and President Olusegun Obasanjo responsible if anything happens to our leader".
The group demanded that Chief Uwazuruike be remanded in prison custody approved by the court.