5 dead as IPOB engages in shootout with gunmen in Anambra

IPOB has vowed to hunt down the gunmen responsible for killings and other security threats in the South-East

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A clash between the proscribed group, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and a group of gunmen has left five people dead at Ihiala in Anambra State.

According to an eyewitness account, the IPOB members were shooting in the air amid cheers from residents of the town who watched as bodies of members of the group were being driven towards the Onitsha-Owerri expressway in a Hilux van. 

“For some time, the gunmen have been disrupting burials and demanding to be settled before any ceremony is organised. They are also the group that has been kidnapping people and snatching cars.

“On June 17, IPOB swooped on the gunmen in their camp and five people were killed during the shootout. IPOB operatives loaded the corpses in a Hilux van and paraded them around the villages.”

In a similar development, some people suspected to be members of the Ebubeagu security outfit clashed with a group of gunmen on Friday in Ihiala during a burial ceremony, although no life was lost.

A source said the clash led to the cancellation of the burial while corpse was returned to mortuary.

”The incident happened at the village called Umuojimaka in Akwa and when the shooting became so much, the family returned the corpse to the mortuary. No new date has been fixed for the burial,” The Punch reported.

Recall that the IPOB, through its publicity secretary, Emma Powerful, had severally dissociated itself from the killings and kidnapping in Anambra and other states in the South South, warning that it would hunt down groups hiding under its name to perpetrate various crimes in the zone.

The eyewitness said, “It is true. The incident happened at Akwa village in Ihiala during a clash between IPOB and some gunmen.

“The gunmen have a camp at a place called Oseakwa, from where they have been terrorising Ihiala, Okija, Uli and other neighbouring communities.

SOURCE: Pulse