Gunmen Burn Police Station, Kill Two Security Operatives In Anambra

Some unknown gunmen have reportedly attacked and set ablaze a police station in Anambra State.

Reports reaching Naija News on Saturday morning revealed that the hoodlums killed at least two local security operatives (Vigilantes) who were on patrol along the old Enugu-Onitsha road in the Abagana community in Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State, last night.

The event reportedly happened at about 11:30 PM last night at a checkpoint near AP Filling Station in the area.

An eyewitness who pleaded not to be in the print told journalists that the gunmen suspected to be members of a cult group attacked the vigilante operatives.

According to the eye witness, he was returning from Awka, the state capital and reaching AP Filling station, he saw the vigilante operatives who, while they were stopping him, were hitting sticks on his car.

The source quoted by SaharaReporters said: “I called one of them and told him this was not the right way to do things. I told him that if they mount a roadblock, police also mount roadblocks, but they don’t hit people’s cars with sticks. One of them said he was stopping me, but I was not stopping. I told him I was stopping but that I wanted to buy fuel at AP Filling Station.

“So, I entered AP Filling Station, and we were still there when we saw two cars passing. The vigilante members stopped them. The cars were filled with only young men.”

He explained that the vigilante operatives again started hitting the cars with sticks, and in the process, all the young men in the cars came out and a fracas ensued.

“I was like, let me leave the place before something bad happens. However, the young men left, but not up to half an hour, they came back, because I was still at the filling station waiting to know if they would get money for me to do POS,” the eyewitness narrated.

He explained further that it was not up to 30 minutes when the hoodlums left, and they returned back, and began shooting sporadically.

“We thought it was the vigilante members that were shooting. By the time we realised that the situation had gotten out of hand, everyone started running. We ran to the back of the filling station.

“I was peeping from where I was hiding and saw that they had killed one of the vigilante members called Dabere by the gutter side while the one they called Agu in the middle of the road was shot below the belt. Dabere died immediately there, but Agu was still alive but was struggling to death while they were trying to get a vehicle to rush him to the hospital.

“After I got home, I was still hearing gunshots everywhere on the Enugu-Onitsha-Abagana road. I heard a rumour that vigilante members killed a member of a rival cult group. So, vigilante members became their target,” he said.

Confirming the event, the Anambra State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Tochukwu Ikenga, told reporters that the assailants also attacked a police station in the community with a petrol bomb after killing the two vigilante operatives.

Ikenga said: “On February 3, 2023, by 11:30 pm, police operatives attached to Abagana Police Station resisted gunmen’s attack on the station and forestalled the attackers from gaining entrance to the police facility.

“The gunmen had earlier attacked Anambra State Vigilante Operatives on patrol, murdered two of their operatives, and on approaching Abagana Police Station, started shooting sporadically to gain entrance to the Police Station.

“The Police Operatives engaged the armed men in a gun duel, due to the superior fire of the police and in a bid for the gunmen to flee the scene, threw a petrol bomb into the station, which ignited the fire and affected the roof of an old building in the station. The fire service operatives responded swiftly and put off the fire.”

The police mouthpiece narrated, saying patrols have been intensified in the area, and that further development shall be communicated to the public.