Scores of members of the Indigenous Peoples Of Biafra,IPOB have been arrested with its key leaders declared wanted by Nigerian security operatives made up of the Police,DSS and Army , generally tagged the Joint Task Force,JTF.
Our Orlu correspondent reported that following the lingering security challenges being experienced in the Orlu zone of Imo state the JTF decided to lay siege against the alleged known members of the IPOB said to be holding sware in the axis.
According to the report the security operatives following a tip off had swooped the sleeping community of Amucha in NJaba Local Government Area of the state in the Orlu axis on January 3 ,2019 with the aim of arresting many IPOB members said to be operating in the area with ease.
On the fateful day the JTF was reported to had struck at the popular square where the outlawed freedom fighters were said to always hold their meetings.
The hit by the Security Joint Task Force JTF, Imo State was reported to have been quite fierce on that day as a result many members of the group were arrested as they were said to be holding a zonal meeting. While some were arrested, others escaped including some of the IPOB ring leaders in the zone. Notable among those who were said to had escaped included; Messrs Robert Duru, Nwakaibeya Okehie and Charles Emeka Collins .
Investigation revealed that the said Collins was not really present in the said zonal meeting but was mentioned during the police interogations by those members arrested.
Nwakaibeya and Duru were said to be present in the meeting . The identity of both men were also given away by those arrested as they were reported to have been subjected to serious torture while under going interrogations.
Also the implication of Charles Emeka Collins,it was gathered was because as the IPOB LGA coordinator for Njaba,he was expected to be present in the meeting, though he wasn’t.
Our correspondent also reports that the JTF consequently declared the three men wanted based on the statements of those arrested,who were subjected to extreme torture,as it were to make them squill under the intense pressure.
It was disclosed that Nwakaibeya Okehie was later arrested by the security operatives,while Robert Duru was shot and killed in his house ,the next day in the wee hours of the morning.
An eye witness revealed that Okehie was whisked off to Abuja,same day but the whereabouts of Charles Emeka Collins was not known as at the time of filing the report.
Meanwhile,the JTF which had declared the men wanted is said to have layed serious manhunt for the arrest of the NJaba LGA coordinator, Charles Emeka Collins as the only way to put paid to the incessant
insecurity in the area.
Our correspondent also disclosed that the suspect,Collins hails from Duruewuru village, Amucha in NJaba LGA.
He is said to be a staunch leader of IPOB in Orlu zone and was also reported to had been on the wanted list of the JTF.
It will be recalled that the proscribed Indigenous Peoples Of Biafra,IPOB is a separatist group operating in the South Eastern Region of Nigeria.
The struggle by the group stems from the discriminatory tendencies of the Nigerian government since after the Civil war that lasted from 1967 to 1970.
The three years of pogrom allegedly saw to the killing of not less than three million South Easterners of the Igbo tribe in Nigeria. The aftermath of the Civil war, the group believes has seriously alienated and marginalised the Igbos from the political leadership and freedom in the country.Hence,the need to seperate from Nigeria had become germaine.
These reasons ,they agitated are the basis for their struggle.
The Federal Government has since in several releases pronounced the activities of the IPOB as Treasonable Felony, and has consequently set machineries in motion to track down all known and perceived persons linked with the separatist group.
The Nigerian government had swore to deal decisively with such persons .
