By Ikeugonna Eleke
In Anambra State, gunmen masquerading as secessionists have marked security operatives for attacks. This has led to several attacks on police operatives leading to casualties on the part of policemen on duty, and, in some cases, on the part of the gunmen too.
There have been two recent attacks that have shown that those behind the attacks are not relenting. In Nnewi and Nnobi, policemen have recently paid the supreme price during such attacks.
Two weeks ago, gunmen operating in Nnewi, on a Friday, attacked a police van, killing one of the policemen at a junction. Sources said the incident happened at about 9am on Friday, and that the attackers, when repelled by the policemen, threw an improvised explosive device at the police team, leaving one of them ripped apart.
Also, a week after, another police officer was feared dead as gunmen reportedly attacked another police checkpoint, in Nnobi, Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State. The latest attack, it was gathered, occurred at about 6:30am on Friday, August 16, at the checkpoint beside the Nnobi Police Headquarters.
It was further gathered that the gunmen engaged the policemen in a gun duel that lasted for about an hour, during which one of the policemen, simply identified as Nwaibi, was fatally injured. The deceased police officer was said to be the driver of one of the police vehicles.
Sources said the hoodlums lodged in a house close to the checkpoint, in the compound of a woman identified as Mama Amanda. They were said to have broken a wall through which they entered the compound and forced the residents to open the gate to drive in their cars.
They were also said to have collected the handsets belonging to the residents and forced them into a room and warned them not to raise the alarm failing which they would be shot.
The report also quoted eyewitness accounts as explaining that the hoodlums captured a young man said to be going on an errand that Friday morning, adding that the hoodlums had in their possession, objects said to be snipers, AK-47s, launchers, and chains.
In both accounts, the Police Command Headquarters in Anambra confirmed the development. The State Police Command’s spokesperson, SP Tochukwu Ikenga, while reacting to the first attack on Nnewi, said: ‘The men were attacked at a checkpoint at Omata Junction, in Uruagu Community, along the Nnewi-Oba Road. A manhunt operation has commenced, and it is led by the Assistant Commissioner in charge of Nnewi Area Command. The Command is already working with the locals in the area to unmask and apprehend the attackers.’
Just as the manhunt operation was going on, the second attack happened. Ikenga who confirmed the second attack, said: ‘It is true. One policeman was killed and there is an operation going on in that area now which the Commissioner of Police has ordered.’
Many are now of the opinion that the attacks are being carried out by secessionist elements. This is because, before now, communities within Anambra South Senatorial Zone that had been occupied by elements suspected to be IPOB members, always rejected the invitations of security forces into the area which the secessionist elements considered as their territory.
Reacting to the claims, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has stated that it established the Eastern Security Network (ESN) as an armed Vigilante group to dislodge the Fulani terrorists masquerading as herdsmen in Biafra Land and not to confront the Nigerian Security Forces or otherwise.
In a statement issued by the IPOB spokesman, Emma Powerful, on Monday, he said that the Fulani were a major threat to the indigenous people and communities in Nigeria. According to him, the marauding Fulanis were responsible for the mass murders of defenceless communities in Nigeria.
The statement read: “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. Unfortunately, the Nigerian Government and her Security Forces tacitly supported the atrocities of the Fulani terrorists by refusing to arrest and prosecute these Fulani mass murderers, rapists and kidnappers.
“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 Biafra Land. 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 Biafran bushes, forests, and people.
“On the other hand, IPOB as a movement, remains non-violent and peaceful in all their activities since its formation. Any day IPOB decides to move into armed struggle, the world will know, and the Nigerian government will know as well
“ESN operatives are not after the Nigerian Security Forces. We know that the Nigerian Government sponsors and uses criminal elements and members of their security agencies to commit criminal actions in Biafra Land for the purposes of blackmailing IPOB in the global arena, just like they did in the Owerri Jail Break and the most recent being the killing of mainly Igbo military personnel in Aba, claiming that IPOB was responsible.
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 the 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 Biafra Land, and those people are neither IPOB nor ESN. Why does the Nigerian Government ignore them and accuse ESN and IPOB of what they have no knowledge about? The answer is very simple because it accentuates their strategy which is to attribute every criminal act in Biafra Land 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”.
Meanwhile, sources within the personnel of the Anambra State Police Command have hinted that the targeted attacks on policemen has demoralized many officers, leaving them in fear of what any day will bring as they get drafted into the field daily for operations.
One of the sources who spoke under the cover of anonymity, said: ‘The morale of our men in this Command has never been this low. Our men now live in fear as they go out for duty. Worst is that there has not been any noticeable assurance to them about their own safety, or any form of incentive that can make them stake their lives when on their job. This is pitiable.’
Fides reached out to the State Police Command’s spokesperson, SP Tochukwu Ikenga, to know what the new Commissioner of Police in the state, CP Nnaghe Obono Itam, was doing to boost the morale of his men against the attacks on them by gunmen, but got no reaction.
Calls, including repeated WhatsApp messages were not attended to. One of the messages sent to Ikenga read: “Good evening PRO. There have been two recent attacks on policemen in Nnewi and Nnobi, in which deaths were recorded. Right now, policemen seem to be endangered species.
“I want your reaction on who you think are responsible for these attacks, what the Command is doing to ensure the safety of its officers, and what is the CP’s charge to men of the Command to boost their morale”.
Several proddings on the PPRO for comments on these failed, including attempts to hold a phone interview, as well as appeals to use a voice note to answer the questions.
Our police source said: ‘My brother, we are just living by the mercy of God. I have told you that morale is very low among policemen today. We go out to work without knowing if we will return. Apart from that, no words of encouragement or assurances of our own safety.’
