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How Joint Security Subdued Attackers Of Imo Police Area Command

Published

4 years ago

May 8, 2021

Editor

More information is emerging on how a joint team of Police, military and other security operatives foiled the attempted attack on the Imo State Police Divisional/Area Command in Orlu on Thursday evening.

This is just as residents recounted their nightmare while the gun duel lasted, with one of them saying: “We passed through hell last night (Thursday), as we could not sleep. The gun battle was too heavy and scary.

“We are tired of gun battle in this area; let peace return. We do not sleep with our eyes open nowadays. No day passes without one form of gun exchange experience or the other.”

Meanwhile, security has been beefed up in Orlu, Owerri the state capital and environs.

It was gathered that the same gang members were responsible for the attack on several Police stations across the state.

The state Police Command, yesterday, paraded nine bodies of some of the yet to be identified gunmen. In the gun duel that lasted about eight hours, a joint security team, comprising soldiers, policemen and other security operatives, successfully repelled the attack, leaving nine of the gunmen dead.

Parading the bodies at the Command headquarters in Owerri, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Abutu Yaro, said during the gun battle, members of the criminal gang fled with bullets wounds and abandoned their operational vehicles in the process, while four of the security personnel sustained various degree of injuries and were currently responding to treatment.

He explained: “On the 6/5/2021, a group of bandits attempted to attack the Divisional Police and Area Command headquarters, both in Orlu LGA, but were successfully repelled.

“However, the operatives IGP Response Team (IRT), in conjunction with the Special Forces and other tactical teams of the Command, engaged them in a shootout and in a bid to retreat and escape, they met the reinforcement teams from the military and DSS, they were then engaged from on both fronts.

“The hoodlums were seen in a viral video around Orlu metropolis stealing and forcefully collecting items from people and also causing public disorder and brandishing assorted types of rifles with brazen bravado.

“They are reasonably believed to be part of the hoodlums that attacked the Police headquarters and the Correctional Service on April 5, 2021.”

The Police chief also listed items recovered from the hoodlums to include four AK 47 rifles; one pump action gun; two Toyota Siena cars; one Toyota Hilux van; one SUV Highlander; one SUV Land Rover; one Nissan Pick up van and assorted charms.

While reassuring residents of the state of their safety, Yaro said: “Recall that I took over duty as the Commissioner of Police, Imo State Command, yesterday, being 06/5/2021 and during my inaugural briefing, I told Imolities that we shall occupy the public space and also re-strategise to ensure crime and criminality is reduced to its barest minimum.

“I also informed you that we shall do everything within our powers to ensure that Imolites sleep with both eyes closed.”

According to a source, on Thursday, May 6, technical intelligence was received that IPOB/ESN members based in a forest camp at Ideato North Council of the state were going to attack the targets, as well as the country home of Governor Hope Uzodimma.

On receiving the intelligence report, Yaro, the Army Brigade Commander, Air Force Commander and Police Special Forces were all informed and all deployed personnel and Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) to Orlu area and other vulnerable places immediately.

It was learnt that around 4pm, information was received that the gang members were sighted with seven cars coming out from the forest; hence all men were immediately alerted.

On reaching Orlu Area Command office, the gang members stormed the entrance of the Command with the seven vehicles and over 40-armed men. The Police APC and personnel of IRT, Special Forces, (Police Mobile Force) PMF and Imo Command were said to have fought back to defend the Area Command and repelled the attackers.

The Police APC received several bullets from the attackers, who wielded a General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG) and several AK47 rifles and succeeded in pursuing the attackers until an Army convoy with three APCs approaching to reinforce the Police came head on with the gang members.

The Army and the Police teams then engaged the gang in a seriously gun battle at the point along Orlu Area Command Road and demobilised all the seven operational vehicles of the gang, killing eight of the members on the spot, while others escaped with bullet wounds.

One of the Police APC that received several bullets from the hoodlums was said to have caught fire and all efforts to put out the fire failed, more so as residents who would have assisted had escaped because of the gun battle and no water was found to extinguish the fire.

There was no reported casualty on the side of the Police and the military and no innocent citizen was hurt.

One of the attackers’ operational vehicles, a black Nissan Hilux said to have been stolen from the vigilante security men using it around 3pm before they proceeded to Orlu town for the foiled operation.

(GUARDIAN)

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Tension As Unknown Gunmen Kill Police Informant In Imo Community

Published

2 months ago

April 25, 2025

Editor

By Qosim Sulaiman

Palpable tension engulfed the residents of Nkwogwu community, Aboh Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State following the killing of an elderly man, Pa Albert Nwanchukwu, believed to be a police informant.

The assailants, numbering about eight, who reportedly stormed the home of the late Nwanchukwu at about 10pm on Tuesday, 22 April, 2025, were said to have met him where he was relaxing in his compound and immediately opened fire on him.

According to our source who pleaded anonymity, before his assassination, the late Nwanchukwu, had reportedly went to a police station in the locality to inform them of the activities of the gunmen, just as he pleaded to the police to get them arrested.

Our source disclosed that the late Nwanchukwu never knew that some policemen are accomplished in the act, adding that the policemen no doubt informed the gunmen who in anger came and killed him.

Our source narrated: “They were about eight in number. They came with different weapons – guns, machetes. They were all masked except their leader.

“It was late but the floodlight from the streetlight was bright. They drove dangerously and went straight to Mr Albert Uwandu Nwachukwu house. The man was relaxing in the front of his house. Immediately they saw him, they opened fire,” he died on the spot”, an eyewitness who saw the entire scene from the balcony of his house recounts.

Our source added: “Further investigations proved that the spy had informed this notorious gang of late Pa Nwachukwu’s visit to the police, thereby leading to the attack on his household.”

After killing the man, the gang reportedly went inside the house searching for other family members.

While it was evident that the gang intended to eviscerate the entire members of the family, three of his children – Victor Onyedikachi Nwachukwu, Promise Rita Nwachukwu Yakubu and Blessing Nzebechi Nwachukwu escaped.

“I saw the three of them. They ran through the back door. Since that time, we have not seen them again”, the same eye-witness disclosed to our correspondent.

This particular incident has thrown the entire community and Aboh Mbaise Local Government in general, into mourning.

While some questioned the safety of police informants, other believed the incident shows the rot in the police force of the country.

Expressing his disappointment in the police, the chairman of Aboh Mabise LGA; Honourable Barrister Iheukwumere Henry Alaribe vowed a major crackdown on the unknown gunmen.

The Commissioner of Police, Imo State Command, CP Aboki Danjuma promised a total clampdown and return of sanity to the community.

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Protect Oil Palm Host Communities; Address Spate Of Kidnapping, Violence, Govt Told

Published

4 months ago

February 26, 2025

Editor

By Joseph Ebi Kanjo

A non-profit organization – African Law Foundation (AFRILAW), has appealed to the government at levels to ensure the protection of oil palm host communities and address the spate of kidnapping and violence in such areas.

AFRILAW further urged the governments to ensure that communities’ rights and privileges are respected in land deals with oil palm companies to avoid human rights violations.

Okereke Chinwike Esq,
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, AFRILAW, made the appeal in Benin on Tuesday at the Public Presentation and launching of ‘The Community-based Report on Human Rights Violations in the Palm Oil Supply Chain in Edo State.’

INFO DAILY reports that the event is part of AFRILAW activities under the “Promoting Human Rights in Palm Oil Supply Chain in Nigeria Project,” being implemented by AFRILAW in partnership with Zero Tolerance Initiative (ZTI) and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) with funding support from True Cost Initiative (TCI) USA.

According to the AFRILAW founder, addressing companies’ human rights violations from their operations in host communities require evidence-based research, hence the research and report presentation.

“The Report we are presenting today documents evidence of community rights violations by major oil palm companies operating in the state. The research is informed by the increasing spate of violence and community protests against the operations of oil palm companies operating in Edo state, and provides greater understanding of the prevailing cases of community and human rights violations and nature of conflicts,” he noted.

He, therefore, urged the government to
“put in place a mandatory binding CSR laws and guidelines for companies to ensure that community rights and privileges are protected.”

He further appealed to the government to “ensure effective implementation of the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights and set forth clear expectations for business enterprises regarding the importance of respecting the rights of human rights defenders, indigenous people and communities in Nigeria.”

On his part, Executive Secretary, National Human Rights Commission, Anthony Ojukwu (SAN), described the report as essential, stressing that beyond normal advocacy, research-based advocacy is more efficient and effective.

Represented by Mrs Mary Okoh, Deputy Director, Legal/Focal Point Business and Human Rights, NHRC, Ojukwu said beyond Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) organization should take seriously major issues of mainstreaming human rights into their operations.

“That means anyone who wants to set up a business must put into consideration the needs of the people and not what the organization or company needs. We have found out that this is where human rights violations start.

“Let them be part of the discussion and planning in the setting up of the business. Let them know what is at stake for them,” he said.

Goodwill messages were delivered by government agencies and ministries, while the presentation and launching also attracted security agencies including the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Customs Service, and the Nigeria Immigration Service among others.

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#EndBadGovernance: Police Manhunt Activists, Others, As Artist Cries Out For Help In Benin

Published

10 months ago

August 15, 2024

Editor

The suspect, Osarenkhoe Destiny Oghosa,

The Nigeria Police Force has launched a manhunt for suspected sponsors of the #EndBadGovernance in Nigeria protest that swept round the country last week.

Though police had arrested scores of such protesters across the country, many, especially vocal personalities and civil rights activists who have been criticising policies of the Tinubu administration in Nigeria have been penned down for arrest.

Also of interest to the police are those alleged to have massively produced and supplied Russian flags that were displayed during the protests, as they have vowed that none of the suspects would be spared.

It was gathered that undercover policemen are closing in on the social critics including one Osarenkhoe Destiny Oghosa, a vocal music artiste in Benin City.

This has raised fears and trepidation in that circle with many going underground for fear of being arrested by the police.

Oghosa is accused of masterminding an attempted jail break in the Benin metropolis similar to the End SARS protest in 2020, experience that resulted in the prison break and escape of prisoners and detainees alike.

Oghosa, in an interview with our correspondent, lamented that his music which focuses social justice, equality, societal ills among others in Nigeria, is now being as a crime.

He further lamented that despite several tactics to beat the security tab on him by agents of the government, he had faced persecution from invincible nocturnal groups.

Further lamenting how the government is hell bent in silencing voices speaking for the masses, Oghosa recalled how he was called at midnight to stop production of his song titled “OBI”, adding that he was seriously warned .

In a related development, Ahmed Bello, one of the suspect producers of the Russian flag hoist in some cities in Nigeria has been attested.

The Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, disclosed this in Abuja on Monday at the Strategic Communications Interagency Policy Committee joint press briefing.

He added that the police were on the trail of other suspects, especially the sponsors of the protest which led to the destruction of government properties in Kaduna and Kano States.

Adejobi said the suspects committed a treasonable felony, offence by waving a foreign country’s flag in Nigeria.

He said: “So, we need to set the record straight. It is important for us to know, so far so good we have been able to arrest some individuals who were engaging themselves in what I call a treasonable felony, while we are still going after their sponsors.

“To carry the flags of a foreign country in another country is a criminal offence. We have them arrested. Just this morning, we arrested one Ahmed Bello from Kano State fuor producing a large quantity of Russian flags given to young Nigerians to hoist for reasons best known to him.”

The police added that protesters in Benin City had made attempts to invade the DSS office in the state with the intention to free persons who in their opinion were being unjustly detained there-in forcing the law enforcement agencies to disperse them.