TheHILL. | METRO | May 8, 2021.
No fewer than forty (40) heavily armed men in the early hours of Saturday, reportedly attacked and razed a police station in Odoro Ikpe, the headquarters of Ini Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State.
TheHILL gathered from a source in the area that the unknown gunmen came to the area in three (3) buses loaded with weapons, overpowered the community vigilantes who have been watchful since the same incident occurred in neighbouring areas.
At least six (6) policemen reportedly lost their lives in the attack, detainees in the cell freed, before the station was set ablaze.
It believed that the police officers lost their lives while trying to prevent the unknown gunmen from gaining entrance to the station.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the Odoro Ikpe attack but fingers are pointed at the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), whose leader, Nnamdi Kanu, after a recent similar attack said in a tweet, “nobody deserves to be jailed in Nigeria.” Kanu’s position, on the other hand contradicts the Nigerian constitution which recommends jail term for several offences.
However, due to the incessant attacks on security agencies and their facilities, the Akwa Ibom State government on May 1, this year, banned the use of motorcycles between 10pm and 6am in all parts of the State. Despite the ban, men of the underworld still continued their onslaughts on police stations.
The Police Spokesperson in Akwa Ibom; Odiko MacDon, a Superintendent of Police, was yet to respond to our reporter’s message at press time.
