Nigerian Police
14 days lockdown imposed as police kills sit-at-home enforcers. The Ebonyi Police Command killed two hoodlums who were purportedly executing a sit-at-home order in the state.
The South-East sit-in was organized by the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra to protest the prolonged arrest of its leader, Nnamdi Kanu.
The hoodlums were said to have shot sporadically into the air within the Okposi area in the Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, while trying to enforce a sit-at-home order, on Monday, when operatives of the command engaged them in a gun duel.
In a statement, on Tuesday, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Onome Onovwakpoyeya, said men of the command gunned down one of the hoodlums, as the shootout ensued.
The statement read, “On 10/07/2023, at about 1350hrs, some armed men, suspected to be IPOB/ESN members, went to Okposi in Ohaozara LGA and started shooting sporadically into the air.
“The hoodlums engaged the policemen in a gun duel, which resulted in one of them being neutralised while the others escaped with varying degrees of bullet wounds.”
The police said they recovered one blue Highlander SUV “riddled with bullets”; one pump-action gun; five live cartridges; four handsets; one Sumec Fireman generator; charms; nine expended shell of AK-47 rifle ammunition, among others.
Meanwhile, Simon Ekpa, the self-proclaimed leader of an IPOB splinter group, has declared a 14-day sit-in across the South-East.
His proclamation came just 24 hours after the same group proclaimed a seven-day lockdown, which resulted in murders and property destruction in the South-East.
In a statement on Tuesday, Ekpa said the imminent sit-at-home order, billed to commence from July 31 through August 14, 2023, was a consequence of the ‘earnest demand’ by southeasterners for a frequent lockdown in the zone.
According to him, the sit-in order was issued to bring the attention of the authorities to Kanu’s continued arrest.
Ekpa also directed that all oil and gas companies working in the South-South zone cease activities immediately.