Nigerian Soldiers Kill Three Suspected ESN Members in Imo State

• Three suspected Eastern Security Network members have been gunned down by soldiers in Imo state
• Military authorities in the southeast state made the announcement on Monday, August 30 at a press briefing
• The deceased were said to have been specialists in carjacking, robbery, and intimidating members of the public

Owerri - The Joint Military Task Force (JTF) in Imo state on Monday, August 30 announced that they have killed three members of a syndicate that allegedly specialise in car snatching.

The commander, 34 Artillery Brigade, Obinze, Brigadier-General Raymond Utsaha, confirmed the incident to newsmen in Owerri.

Utsaha, however, described the deceased as members of the Eastern Security Network, said to be the military arm of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

Items said to have been recovered from the gang included two vehicles, two locally-made pistols, five spent rounds, some illicit drugs, charms, and two number plates, among others, from the suspects.

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A source from the area told the Daily Sun newspaper that the hoodlums were using the opportunity of IPOB's sit-at-home order to dispossess residents of the area of their valuables.

Vanguard newspaper quoted an intelligence officer saying:

“The armed hoodlums were busy enforcing the sit-at-home order, forcing people to close their businesses in the various communities, collecting their valuables.”

Last week, the ever-bubbling Owerri streets were virtually empty on Monday, August 23 as residents stayed indoors across Imo state.

Commercial vehicles to convey women to markets were nowhere to be found kept off while school children who began their junior West African examinations were stranded as they could not get vehicles to convey them to schools.

However, by noon, the situation had started loosening up as some commercial vehicles were seen plying their trade, but banks and commercial centres still remained shut.

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Meanwhile, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, on Sunday, August 22 called on the Igbo leaders not to turn their back on the arrested leader of IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

Anyanwu made the appeal in Owerri, the Imo state capital while speaking to journalists on the arrest and detention of the IPOB leader.

The senator who represented Imo East senatorial district in the Senate between 2015 to 2019, said the Igbo leaders should learn from the Yorubas who stood against the arrest and planned extradition of one of their own, Sunday Igboho, from the Benin Republic to Nigeria.

Source: Legit.ng