By BARBARA KALU, Enugu –
The Enugu State Commissioner of Police, CP Ahmed Ammani, has ordered for an intensified manhunt of assailants who murdered three police operatives performing stop-and-search duty within the state.
The policemen were killed at Agbani Roundabout in Agbani community of Nkanu West LGA by armed hoodlums suspected to be Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) renegades.
The Police Public Relations Officers, DSP Daniel Ndukwe, said in a statement on Sunday in Enugu, that the commissioner gave the order after he visited the scene of the incident.
DSP Ndukwe said that the commissioner’s visit was to enable him to assess and re-strategise towards further containing nefarious activities of the subversive criminal elements, following their recent attacks and gruesome murder of security operatives and innocent citizens of the state.
He said the IPOB renegades numbering about 15, operated in Lexus Jeep and Toyota Tundra vehicles during the attacks on the policemen on duty.
He said: “Preliminary investigation suggests that the same hoodlums are responsible for the attack and shooting in the thigh of a filling station manager and kidnapping of a male victim and snatching of another’s vehicle at different times.
“This related incidents happened within the Ibagwa-Nike axis and Alulu-Nike axis of the Enugu East Local Government Area on Nov. 17 and Nov.18.
“Similarly, the commissioner visited Nkpokolo-Achi in Oji-River LGA, where a suspected network of the same subversive criminal elements, infiltrated into the area from neighbouring Anambra State community, in the evening hours of Nov. 18.
“The subversive criminal elements attacked and murdered one Gabriel Onuzulike, identified as former Chairman of Oji-River council area and commissioner in the state, and his brother.
“They were, however pursued, intercepted and engaged in a fierce gunfight at Inyi community of the same council area, by a joint police/army team, as they were escaping back to Anambra State and two of the assailants were gunned down.”
The police spokesman said that the commissioner stated that the command would never be deterred in its quest to rid the state of these manners of criminals.
According to him, the commissioner has ordered maximum deployment of all operational and intelligence resources of the command to ensure that the renegades and other criminal elements operating in the state were hunted down.
“The command will stop at nothing in fishing out and putting to an end the heinous and violent crimes of the unrepentant criminals,” he said.
He said the commissioner enjoined residents to remain law-abiding, vigilant and assist the command with credible information or intelligence required in fishing out the criminal elements and containing general acts of crime and criminality.
“This they can do by calling the command’s emergency hotlines on: 08098880172, 08032003702, 08075390883 or 08086671202 or alternatively, send emails to infoenugupolice@gmail.com,” he added.
DISCLAIMER
The OPINION / COLUMN is authored by independent contributors to the National Accord Newspaper. While contributors adhere to our editorial guidelines, they are not employed by the National Accord Newspaper. The perspectives and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of the National Accord Newspaper or its staff.