Yesterday, as police officers were on patrol around Old Garki Road in Okigwe, Imo State, gunmen ambushed and attacked them, killing two, wounding four, and setting their patrol car on fire. The police officers were from Mopol 18, Owerri.
Henry Okoye, a spokesman for the command, stated in a statement that the incident happened early yesterday morning and that two officers made the ultimate sacrifice.
The statement reads: “The Commissioner of Police (CP), Imo State Command, Aboki Danjuma has condemned the attack and gruesome murder of personnel of Mopol 18, Owerri, by gunmen suspected to be members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its armed affiliate Eastern Security Network (ESN). The officers were ambushed in the early hours of Saturday while on patrol duties along old Gariki Road, Okigwe, by the disgruntled elements, who threw dynamite on the officers’ patrol vehicle and engaged them in a protracted gunfight. In the process, two officers paid the ultimate price while four others survived the attack.”
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The statement said the CP has directed the Special Tactical Unit to work in synergy with other sister security agencies to apprehend the perpetrators, stressing: “On receipt of the ugly incident, the Commissioner of Police Imo State Command, CP Aboki Danjuma alongside Commander Mopol 18 and 64, immediately led operatives of the Command’s Special Tactical Unit to the crime scene for on-the-spot assessment and tasked the operatives to go all out in synergy with other security agencies and hunt down the hoodlums responsible for the attack.”
The large-scale deployment of security personnel in Okigwe, he said, should neither intimidate or frighten the people from going about their legal business. In expressing sympathy to the slain officers’ families, relatives, and connections, the Commissioner of Police reaffirmed unequivocally that the Command, which he oversaw, would not tolerate any kind of attack on state security professionals.
