The Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) has dissociated itself from the recent attack at the Nigerian Correctional Service in Owerri, the Imo State capital.
The IPOB also reiterated that its members and the Eastern Security Network (ESN) have never been involved in assaulting Nigeria’s security operatives.
Emma Powerful, the Media and Publicity Secretary of the group, stated this to SaharaReporters while reacting to the incident on Monday morning.
Hundreds of inmates at the headquarters of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS), Owerri, Imo State, were set free by unknown gunmen on Monday morning.
The gunmen also attacked the nearby office of the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) of the state police command, also freeing suspects there.
The attackers burnt almost all the vehicles parked at the command headquarters and freed all the suspects in almost all the cells at the SCID.
It was learnt that the gunmen operated in over 10 vehicles, and also attacked soldiers stationed at Umuorji along Owerri–Onitsha Expressway.
The attackers were said to have had a free rein during the operation that lasted about two hours and said to have started between 1 am and 2 am on Monday.
The gunmen caused panic in the town as explosions were heard around the state police command headquarters and the NCC facility in Owerri.
While reacting to the occurrence, the group through its spokesman, said, “The attention of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has been drawn again to the fallacious and fabricated news that IPOB and ESN are involved in the attack of prison and police headquarters in Owerri, Imo State.”
Powerful urged the Nigerian government and media houses to stop labelling IPOB members and its security operatives unknown gunmen as their primary assignment is mainly to resist the terror of the killer Fulani herders.
“IPOB and ESN are known groups not unknown gunmen. ESN is in the bush chasing Fulani terrorists, why linking IPOB and ESN to this attack? IPOB and ESN were not involved in the attack in Owerri, Imo State and the recent attack on Onitsha-Owerri road at Ukwuorji junction. It is not our mandate to attack security personnel or prison facilities. “The Nigeria Government and her compromised media outfits should stop linking IPOB and ESN to the multiple attacks going on in Nigeria now. IPOB was formed on the principle of peace and we are still in it. Unknown gunmen are different people; we don’t know them and they are not IPOB or ESN security outfit.”
