THE Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) has dissociated itself from Monday attacks on Imo State Police headquarters and the Nigerian Correctional Service in Owerri.
It also reiterated that its members and the Eastern Security Network (ESN) had never been involved in assaulting Nigeria’s security operatives.
The Media and Publicity Secretary of the group Emma Powerful told newsmen while reacting to the incident on Monday morning that IPOB and ESN were not involved in the attacks.
He described media reports linking the group and its security outfit to the attacks as fallacious and fabricated.
“The attention of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has been drawn again to the fallacious and fabricated news that IPOB and ESN are involved in the attack of prison and police headquarters in owerri imo state,” he said.
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“IPOB and ESN are known groups, not unknown gunmen. ESN is in the bush chasing Fulani terrorists, why linking IPOB and ESN to this attack? IPOB and ESN were not involved in the attack in Owerri, Imo State. and the recent attack on Onitsha- Owerri Road at Ukwuorji Junction. It is not our mandate to attack security personnel or prison facilities.”
He urged the Nigerian government and media houses to stop labelling IPOB members and its security operatives as unknown gunmen, as their primary assignment was mainly to resist the terror of the killer Fulani herders.
“The Nigerian government and her compromised media outfits should stop linking IPOB and ESN to the multiple attacks going on in Nigeria now. IPOB was formed on the principle of peace and we are still in it. Unknown gunmen are different people; we don’t know them and they are not IPOB or ESN security outfit.”
The ICIR had reported how some gunmen in the early hours of Monday razed Imo State Police Command headquarters.
Some vehicles parked at the command headquarters were also burnt down. It was gathered that the hoodlums further freed suspects in almost all the cells at the State Criminal Investigation Department of the command.
The attackers also reportedly attacked the Owerri Correctional Prison in Imo State capital and freed over 1,500 inmates.
The State Police Command is yet to make any comment on the incident as efforts by The ICIR to reach the police spokesperson Orlando Ikeokwu for comments were unsuccessful.
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Several calls put across to his phone were not picked, neither did he react to a text sent to his Whatsapp number as of the time of filing this report.
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