By Adadainfo
The commissioner of police, Enugu State Command, CP Ahmed Ammani, has vowed to fish out the killers of three police operatives in Agbani, headquarters of Nkanu West Local Government Area.
He stated this when he visited the scene of the incident yesterday. The deceased were conducting stop-and-search duties when they were attacked by unknown gunmen.
According to the state police public relations officer, DSP Daniel Ndukwe, the attackers ‘are suspected to be IPOB/ESN renegades, numbering about fifteen, who operated in a Lexus Jeep and Toyota Tundra vehicles’.
According to Ndukwe, the CP’s visit ‘was to enable him to assess and re-strategize towards further containing the nefarious activities of the subversive criminal elements, following their recent attacks and gruesome murder of security operatives and innocent citizens of the state’.
The statement revealed that, “Preliminary investigations suggest that the same hoodlums are responsible for the attack and shooting in the thigh of a filling station manager, kidnapping of a male victim and snatching of another’s vehicle at different times, within the Ibagwa-Nike and Alulu-Nike axis of East LGA on 17th and 18th November, 2022.”
Ndukwe said CP Ammani also visited Nkpokolo-Achi in Oji-River LGA where ‘a suspected network of the same subversive criminal elements, said to have infiltrated into the area from neighbouring Anambra State community, in the evening hours of 18/11/2022, attacked and murdered one Gabriel Onuzulike (m), identified as former chairman of Oji-River LGA and commissioner in the Enugu State government, and his brother’.
According to him, the attackers were intercepted and engaged in a fierce gunfight at Inyi community, of the same LGA, by a Joint Police/Army Team’.
Quoting him, “In the ensuing gun duel, the operatives neutralized two of the hoodlums, forcing the others to escape into a nearby forest with severe degrees of gunshot wounds.
“Thereafter, the team recovered one AK-47 rifle and one pistol with several live ammunition, while the Toyota Land Cruiser Prado Jeep belonging to the deceased victims, a Toyota Camry car the assailants attempted to snatch from another victim and a RAV4 Jeep they used for the heinous criminal operations, two mobile phones, amongst other incriminating items.”
Meanwhile, the commissioner has ordered the maximum deployment of all the operational and intelligence resources of the command to ensure that the ‘renegades and other criminal elements operating in the state are hunted down’
The statement enjoined citizens of the state to remain law-abiding, vigilant and assist the command with credible information and/or intelligence to fish out the criminal elements and contain general acts of crimes in the state.
Citizens were also urged to call the command’s emergency hotlines on 08098880172, 08032003702, 08075390883 or 08086671202; or alternatively send emails to infoenugupolice@gmail.com when the need arises.
