Imo: Officer Injured As Police Exchange Fire With Hoodlums During Attack On Station

Gunmen in the early hours of Monday attacked the Obowo Police Division, Imo State, with petrol bombs and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

According to the state’s police spokesman, Michael Abattam, the criminals suspected to be members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the Eastern Security Network (ESN) laid siege to the station at about 2am on Monday.

Abattam said the attackers came in their numbers through the rear of the police division which is an ungoverned forest and threw in petrol bombs which fell on a transit camp and a vehicle.

He said operatives at the division, however, repelled the attack, forcing the assailants to flee into the forest while abandoning some of their weapons.

“The police operatives of the division and some of the Command’s Tactical Teams responded swiftly, engaging the hoodlums in a fierce gun duel preventing them from gaining entrance to the station and in the process forced the hoodlums into retreating and they escaped back into the forest with various degrees of bullet wounds.

“The police operatives gave them a hot chase and while combing the bush the following items were recovered on the spot: three (3) undetonated Explosives, four (4) expended AK 47 RIFLES ammunition, five (5) live cartridges, thirty-three (33) expended cartridges, two masks, one pump action gun, and a motor saw machine.

“Meanwhile, apart from the minimal damage on the transit camp and a vehicle, no life was lost. However, the police operative who sustained minor gunshot injury has been treated,” said Abattam.

The attack is coming barely weeks after gunmen attacked the Umugoma Police Division in the state, resulting in the death of two officers. The country home of Ohaneze Ndi Igbo President General, Mike Obiozor, was also recently burnt down by unknown arsonists in the state.