The Imo State Police Command paraded fifteen individuals on Thursday, reported to be members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), who were apprehended in a forest in Obiangwu and Logara, located in the Ngor-Okpala council area of Imo State. The State Police Public Relations Officer, Henry Okoye, confirmed this development to journalists in Owerri at the command’s headquarters.
The arrests were made based on information obtained from some suspected IPOB members previously detained by the command in connection with alleged attacks in the state. The Commissioner of Police for Imo State, CP Aboki Danjuma, assured the public, including those in the diaspora planning to return for the yuletide celebration, of maximum safety and security during and after the festive season.
CP Danjuma, during the parade of the fifteen suspects, declared the commitment of the command to continue cracking down on subversive and unrepentant criminal syndicates until the state is free from any form of violent crime.
The arrests followed a sustained follow-up to the confessions made by a notorious IPOB/ESN suspect recently apprehended by the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of the command. The operatives, led by CSP Oladimeji Odeyeyiwa, strategically maneuvered into the hideouts of the suspected terrorists in the Obiangwu and Logara Forest in Ngor-Okpala LGA of Imo State. The suspects were taken by surprise, leading to their surrender.
Upon searching the suspects and their hideout, law enforcement recovered an AK-47 rifle loaded with 21 rounds of live ammunition, charms, a cut-to-size double-barrel short gun, four locally made short guns, three rounds of live ammunition, suspected cannabis sativa, suspected hard drug substances, a militia camouflage T-shirt, an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), a Guinea foul with fetish items, a Point of Sale (POS) device used for extorting money, and various denominations of Biafra currency.
The suspects will be arraigned in court after a comprehensive investigation. The Commissioner of Police reiterated the Imo State Command’s commitment to ensure the entire state’s protection from violent crimes, urging the public to support the police and other security agencies with timely and actionable information to combat crime in the state.
