By Ben Ekezie
Eight suspected gunmen were yesterday gunned down in-front of Orlu Police Area Command, Imo State while in attempt to attack and burn down the station. The gunmen were rumoured to be members of Indigenous People Of Biafra(IPOB) and Eastern Security Network.
According to police sources, all police formations across the state have been on red alert after the previous attacks and intel received on impending attacks on all police formation especially Orlu.
At about 4pm the gunmen were seen around Ideato area of the state with seven cars and over 40 armed men. On getting to the area, the gunmen who openly brandished a General-Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG) and several rifles were said to have launched an attack.
Luckily the policemen who were also prepared repelled the attack with the aid of their Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) until Army convoy brought reinforcement and pushed them away.
During the shootout which lasted for more than 30mintues, 8 of the gunmen were killed, several others escaped with bullet wounds while seven of their operational vehicles were demobilized.
None of police or military personnel was killed but one of the police APC at the center of the bullet rain caught fire. It learnt that residents within that axis tried their best to extinguish the fire but failed.
Operational vehicles recovered from the gunmen includes a Toyota Hummer bus, two Sienna Spaces buses, Toyota Camry car, Toyota Highlander jeep, Toyota Hilux van, Land Rover jeep and Nissan Hilux van that was snatched from vigilante men in Ideato before proceeding to Orlu.
Also recovered were several AK47 rifles, pistols, ammunition and several charms.
Everyday another bad news…God save us all
Amen