Trouble started on Saturday 13th February 2021, when the policemen got to the checkpoint some distance away from the failed portion of the road, when the suspects opened fire on them as some of the officers purportedly took cover in the nearby bushes following the superior power from the suspects.
The incident which occurred around 8:00pm, near Lake Town Hotel, left several police officers wounded.
It was reliably learnt that two police officers were found dead when normalcy was restored to the area, as the suspects asked travellers to reverse and go back, saying that they were for the policemen.
It was gathered that many passengers ran into the bush for safety, later a police patrol hilux and sienna buses came to the spot, an eyewitness said.
It was gathered that four Operation Delta Hawk, a new security outfit launched by the state governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa stormed the Community to render backup to the police.
Meanwhile, youths and family members of a 75-year-old woman identified as Mrs. Okolo, in Asaba, the State Capital who was hit by a stray bullet are miffed by the death of the deceased who was outside at the time of the crossfire.
The late Mrs. Okolo, met her untimely death when the police gave the hooligans a hot chase as they headed towards Asaba, the State capital while the police team were trying to deflate their tyres with bullets, when a stray bullet killed her.
It was learnt that in the last four months, no fewer than 10 policemen have lost their lives during such incidents.
In a swift reaction, the State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ari Mohammed Ali, who confirmed the killings on Tuesday 16th February 2021, said the police killed two of them while two policemen were gun down, as stray bullet hit an innocent old woman in the process.
He disclosed that the police engaged the bandits, suspected to be members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), along Ugbolu-Illah road axis, disclosing that the suspects carted away two police service riffles while the police recovered two guns and charms from them.
Said he: ‘The people suspected to be IPOB, and when the Police was going after them, and in the course of demobilizing their vehicle, the bullets met the old woman innocently; we are still in search of other members with a view to track them down and recover our guns in their possession”.
Mr. Ali said he is in talk with the family of the 75 years old woman who was mistakenly killed by the police, “to see that something is done about it”.
He said however, that the family of the deceased gave some conditions, and that the Palace of the Asagba of Asaba was assisting the police to meet the conditions given by the woman’s family.
The also hinted that the deceased has been deposited at an undisclosed morgue.
