Gunmen in one of the deadliest operations in South East killed four police personnel and a woman, a Point of Sale (PoS) machine operator, along the Onitsha-Owerri Expressway, at about 6:30 p.m. on Monday in Owerri, Imo State.
However, reacting to the killing, controversial Biafra agitator, Simon Ekpa, has claimed responsibility for the killings. Ekpa claimed responsibility in a post on his X handle shortly after the attack.
He announced that members of his Biafra Defence Forces had killed the Police personnel in Owerri. He also attached a video clip to the X post.
The clip showed four rifles and some police case files displayed by some persons who claimed to have attacked and killed the personnel. The clip, however, did not show the faces of the persons speaking in the background.
“Papa, it wasn’t easy. You know today is the beginning of sit-at home (in the South-East). People were asked to sit at home, and these people (police operatives) came out to extort people,” one person said in the Igbo language.
“These are Nigerian terrorists who were at their duty post despite our leader’s sit-at-home order. But they felt they work for the govern- ment and would not obey the order.
“They have now seen it happen today in Owerri, which is July 29, 2024. “The Biafra Defence Forces, Owerri Command, has recovered weapons from the terrorists after neutralising them in numbers,” he wrote on the microblogging platform at exactly 8:50 p.m. on Monday.”