ABIA State Governor Alex Otti has announced that the N25 million bounty he placed on killers of five soldiers in Aba has now been increased to N30 million.
He disclosed this on Friday, June 7, during a visit by the Chief of Air Staff, Hasan Bala Abubakar, in Isiala Ngwa South area of the state.
“The government has placed a bounty of N25 million, and just yesterday, an Abia son, who also comes from Obingwa and lives in the United States, sent us N5 million to upgrade the bounty to N30 million.
“So I am happy to announce that the bounty has just been upgraded to N30 million to encourage anyone that will have useful information that will lead to the apprehension of the criminals,” he said.
The governor also said officials of the State Security Service (SSS) were also involved in the search for the killers and were making efforts to ensure the safety of other residents.
“We are very single-minded about it. We must fish them out and ensure that they get the message that this place is a no-go area for terrorists, killers, kidnappers and other criminals,” Otti vowed.
On Thursday, May 30, gunmen launched an attack on soldiers manning a military checkpoint at the Obikabia Junction in the Aba area of the state, killing five of them.
The gunmen were enforcing a sit-at-home order in the state declared by Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) across the South-Eastern states.
The slain soldiers were on a peacekeeping mission as a result of the sit-at-home order when they were murdered, an incident that occurred barely two months after a similar killing in Okuama, Delta State.
Seventeen soldiers were killed in Okuama on March 14.
President Bola Tinubu has condemned these killings, describing them as treasonable.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via [email protected] or @ije_le on Twitter.