BEVERLY HILLS, August 24, (THEWILL) – A clash between Security forces and the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), have claimed the lives of two officials attached to the Department of State Security Service (DSS) and three members of the outlawed pro-Biafra group, on Sunday in Emene, Enugu.
Peter Afunaya, the Operatives’ Public Relations Officer, on Sunday night said a patrol team of the DSS was attacked in the Emene area by IPOB members. He said two of its personnel were killed in “an unprovoked attack”. The agency announced that all measures have been put in place to ensure that their killers and everyone involved in the act are apprehended and brought to justice.
However, IPOB in a statement by Nzekwe Ugonna, alleged that over 15 members of the group were arrested, adding that “we have recovered three dead bodies and many sustained injuries while trying to escape from security men”
It was learnt that trouble started at about 9.00 am, when machete-wielding members of the group allegedly gathered at the St Patrick’s Community School compound, along the old Abakaliki road to conduct a “combat training for new members.”
The information about their gathering was said to have filtered to operatives of the DSS, who stormed the venue to stop the exercise from taking place.
A heated argument was said to have ensued leading to a free for all with both camps using different objects against each other
ALSO READ: Police, Army Arrest 68 IPOB Members In Imo
The Biafra campaigners were said to have overpowered the DSS operatives and made it to a nearby Emene Police station, chanting solidarity songs.
A security source said that, though some of the officials of the DSS had guns they could not fire at the rampaging members of the group “because they were not permitted to apply force on the group. It was while attempting to gain entrance into the police station that about a dozen patrol vans loaded with well-armed security agents, made up of Police, Army and DSS moved into the scene and started shooting at them”.
