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Following the clash between members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the Nigerian Police Force in Oraifite, Anambra state which led to the killing of two members of the separatist group and two policemen, there seems to be conflicting accounts to the story emanating both camps in the crisis.
Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous people of Biafra had first raised the alarm that his lawyer’s home in Oraifite was attacked by a combined team of the Police and the Army for the sole purpose of assassinating the IPOB counsel.
In a statement signed by Kanu himself and obtained by crimefacts.news, the IPOB leader said that though his lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor escaped, two other members of IPOB were killed by the invading security forces.
He noted that the Monday morning killing came on the heel of another killing of two IPOB members who were peacefully gathered in Arondizuogu on Sunday,1st December. Their bodies, he said, were still in the morgue.
Replying few hours later, the Police spokesman in Anambra SP Haruna Mohammed said Police officers were attacked in Oraifite by armed men suspected to be members of the proscribed IPOB.
Police said that earlier on the same day, around 11:30 am, that there was a formal complaint against One Barrister Ifeanyi Ejiofor in Oraifite on alleged case of abduction, assault occasioning harm and malicious damage to property.
That following the report, Police patrol teams led by the Area Commander, Oraifite ACP Oliver Abbey mobilized and rushed to the scene in order to arrest the suspect who declined Police invitation.
According the statement by Haruna Mohammed which was also made available to crimefacts.news, “as soon as Police arrived the house, armed men suspected to be IPOB members descended on the Police, set ablaze one Patrol vehicle and attacked them with rifles and machetes. As a result of the attack, two Police officers whose identities are being withheld were killed by the suspected IPOB members while others were inflicted with machete cuts. The injured personnel were rushed to the Hospital for medical attention and are presently receiving treatment.
“Consequently, the Command deployed reinforcements from the State Headquarters comprising of PMF, SARS and Special Anti Cult Units in conjunction with the Army and other sister agencies who cordoned off the area in order to fish out the culprits, while Joint patrol are still ongoing in the town to prevent further breakdown of law and order.
There is yet a third angle to the story in which some locals maintain that the police had attacked Ejiofor’s house and killed two persons before a reprisal attack by youths of the community who were enraged by the impunity of the policemen.
crimefacts.news reports that following the killing of the two IPOB members in Ejiofor’s home, the angry youths had mobilized and attacked the Police. Two policemen were reportedly killed and burnt alongside a Police patrol van in an area around the Nkwo Oraifite market.
