Police launch manhunt as gunmen kill one in Anambra attack

The Anambra State Police Command said it had launched a search for some yet-to-be-identified gunmen, following an attack in the early hours of Tuesday on the Oba Police Divisional Headquarters and Oba Civic Centre, in Idemili South Local Government Area of the state.

Gunmen, in their large numbers, had attacked the Oba Police Divisional Headquarters, throwing explosives that caused a fire at the premises.

During the incident, a yet-to-be-identified police corporal was killed and some other persons sustained varying degrees of injury.

Sources who pleaded anonymity for security reasons in the area told our correspondent that the gunmen also attacked the Oba Civic Centre on their way, thereby causing some destruction at the facility

The reason for the attack has yet to be ascertained and it is not yet clear the actual level of casualties, but the attack was believed to have been carried out by a secessionist group.

The Anambra State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Tochukwu Ikenga, confirmed the incident in a statement on Tuesday, adding that security operatives were currently in a joint patrol in the area.

Ikenga said the hoodlums shot sporadically and threw petrol bombs, causing fires in some offices and the civic centre.

Ikenga said, “The police-led Joint Security Force comprising the army, navy, civil defence and other security agencies are currently in a joint onslaught operation within Oba and its environments following an attack in the early hours of today 3/9/2024 on the Oba Police Divisional Headquarters and Oba Civic Centre.

“The suspected armed secessionist group started shooting sporadically in an attempt to gain entrance to the police station and threw petrol bombs at the security facility which made some of the offices catch up with fire including the Oba Civic Center.

“Unfortunately, a police corporal who was fatally wounded paid the supreme price, while the fire was put off with the help of other police officers on duty and the Joint Security responding team.”

He added that the Commissioner of Police in the state, CP Nnaghe Obono Itam, while condemning the act, described the invasion of security facilities and hostility towards state agents as an attack on the soul of the nation and vowed to bring those behind the unholy act to book.