Gunmen posing as secessionists have stepped up their attacks on security personnel in Anambra State, resulting in casualties among police forces and, in some instances, among the attackers as well. Two recent assaults indicate that the perpetrators are not backing down.
In Nnewi and Nnobi, police officers lost their lives in these recent attacks. Two weeks ago, gunmen in Nnewi ambushed a police team, killing one officer at a junction. Sources reported that the incident occurred around 9 a.m., and when the police attempted to repel the attackers, the assailants hurled an improvised explosive device at them, leaving one officer critically injured. A week later, another officer was reportedly killed when gunmen targeted a police checkpoint in Nnobi, Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State.
The most recent attack,took place around 6:30 a.m. on Friday, August 16, near the checkpoint adjacent to the Nnobi Police Headquarters. The gunmen reportedly engaged the police in a shootout that lasted about an hour, during which a policeman, identified only as Nwaibi, was fatally injured. Nwaibi was said to be the driver of one of the police vehicles.
Sources revealed that the assailants had taken refuge in a house near the checkpoint, owned by a woman known as Mama Amanda. They reportedly broke through a wall to gain access to the compound, forced the residents to open the gate to drive in their vehicles, confiscated the residents’ phones, and confined them to a room, warning them not to raise an alarm or risk being shot. Eyewitnesses also claimed that the gunmen captured a young man on an errand that morning, and were armed with items like sniper rifles, AK-47s, and chains.
The Anambra State Police Command confirmed the incident. Speaking about the earlier attack in Nnewi, the state police spokesperson, SP Tochukwu Ikenga, stated that the officers were ambushed at a checkpoint at Omata junction in the Uruagu community along the Nnewi Oba road. He noted that a manhunt operation, led by the Assistant Commissioner in charge of the Nnewi Area Command, had begun, and that the command was collaborating with local residents to identify and apprehend the attackers.
Despite the ongoing manhunt, the second attack occurred shortly after. Ikenga confirmed this, stating that one policeman was killed and that an operation was underway in the area as ordered by the Commissioner of Police.
Many believe that secessionist elements are responsible for these attacks. However, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) denied this, stating that their Eastern Security Network (ESN) was established as an armed vigilante group to combat Fulani terrorists posing as herdsmen in Biafra land, not to confront Nigerian security forces. In a statement by IPOB spokesperson Emma Powerful on Monday, he alleged that Fulani militants were a significant threat to indigenous communities in Nigeria and were responsible for numerous killings in defenseless communities.
The statement reads: “They are responsible for the mass abductions and rape of women in Nigeria.
“They are behind the kidnapping for ransom and human organ trafficking in Biafra land and in Nigeria with murderous fulani security agents in Nigeria.
“In order to defend the defenseless Biafrans, the IPOB leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, in collaboration with IPOB family worldwide established the Eastern Security Network (ESN) in December 2020 as a child of necessity to checkmate the activities of Fulani terrorists nicknamed herdsmen in Biafraland.
“The mandate given to ESN operatives was to curtail, dislodge, and remove terrorists maiming and destroying Biafran farms and farmers.
“The ESN operatives have never deviated from their mandate of protecting Biafra bushes, forests, and people.
“On the other hand, IPOB as a movement remains non-violent and peaceful in all our activities since the formation of IPOB.
“Any day IPOB decides to move into arms struggle, the world will know, and the Nigerian government will know as well
“ESN Operatives are not after the Nigerian Security Forces.
“But we know that the objective of the murder of those soldiers on the most revered day in Biafran calendar was to present IPOB in bad light in eyes of our people and the world as well as to destabilise the developmental work being carried out in Abia State by the governor of the state.
“The Nigerian government knows those who take responsibility for crimes committed in Biafraland, and those people are neither IPOB nor ESN, why does the Nigerian government ignore them and accuse ESN and IPOB of what they had no knowledge about?
“The answer is very simple because it accentuates their strategy which is to attribute every criminal act in Biafraland to the only genuine movement standing between them and their evil agenda to conquer our people and dispossess us of our ancestral land and heritage.”
