On Tuesday, the Ebonyi State Police Command announced that its Tactical Team had neutralised two members of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Eastern Security Network (ESN) during a shootout with the criminals, while three others had been apprehended.
The Command also stated that it recovered 13 military hand grenades suspected of being made in Russia, among other goods.
The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Chris Anyanwu, told media in Abakaliki, the State capital, that men from the Tactical Team pounced on the hoodlums’ camp in Umuleje Amaeze, Nkalaha in the State’s Ishielu local government area.
SP Anyanwu stated that one of the suspects detained during the previous raid on an IPOB/ESN camp in the State, who was supporting the Police in their investigation, led the team to the hoodlums’ refuge in a dense woodland, showing that there were numerous IPOB/ESN camps around the State.
According to the Police Command spokeswoman, when the detectives were advancing inside the camp, the hoodlums spotted them but were unaware that the squad had tactically prepared how to pounce on them.
He stated that the hoodlums saw the first set of agents and opened fire on them, and while they were doing so, the Tactical Team cordoned off the area and neutralized the criminals with superior fire power.
He stated that two of the captured hoodlums had fatal bullet wounds, two were neutralized on the spot, and others fled in other directions.
He mentioned that the day the Command stormed the hoodlums’ hideout was the community’s market day, and that some of the hoodlums who fled in different directions went into the market and were firing intermittently and looting the items of the traders in the community.
SP Anyanwu stated that the local kids, in coordination with the Vigilante, caught one of the hoodlums, whom they dubbed Unknown Gunmen, and handed him over to the police.
He claimed that members of the crew dismantled the hoodlums’ camps and recovered goods used in wreaking havoc on the locals.
He claimed that among the goods found from the camp were 13 military hand grenades made in Russia. Other items included 210 electrical detonators, two Lexus 300 Jeeps, five motorcycles, two pump action weapons, many single barrel guns, AK47 and GPNG ammo, and around 30 pieces of military uniform.
Other goods included IPOB clothes, a Biafran flag, and six bags of Indian hemp, according to SP Anyanwu.
According to the Police Public Relations Officer, the hoodlums also sell weaponry taken from Police formations during attacks, and adolescents from fighting communities also convey unlawfully acquired arms to the hoodlums, which they use to carry out their nefarious actions.
