Gunmen attack police station

There was pandemonium, yesterday afternoon, in Owerri, the Imo state capital, as gunmen allegedly attacked the Orji Police station, a suburb of the Owerri metropolis.

A woman who fries bean cakes (Akara) and yam was reportedly killed by a stray bullet allegedly fired by the combined team of the military/police who had arrived to repel the gunmen.

Eyewitness accounts said the gunmen, who were said to be four in number and driving in an Innoson Hilux, dressed in black, had arrived at the Orji Police Division and opened fire, sending officers of the station scampering for safety. It was also gathered that some of the officers had sustain injuries in their bid to escape the gunfire of the gunmen who had caught the officers napping.

It was learnt that the gunmen had operated for over 45 minutes and left the scene before the arrival of a combined military/police team shooting sporadically into the air.

He said: “Before the arrival of the police, the gunmen had already left the scene, but when police arrived with the police commissioner, they started looking for escape goats and anyone who looked suspicious was promptly arrested. It was also the stray bullets fired by the security agents that hit and killed a woman who used to fry Akara and yam in the area,” he lamented.   

Following the shootings, traders and banks along the Weatheral-Bank road, Orji, and Tetlow and Douglas, all shut down, apparently to avoid becoming victims.

However, the spokesman of the state Police Command, Bala Elkana, said that officers of the command had repelled some hoodlums who tried to burn down the reconstructed Orji Police Division.