The police authorities in Imo State have arrested nine suspected members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) who allegedly killed five officers and a couple in the state.

The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Henry Okoye, in a statement on Monday, said police operatives, led by Odeyeyiwa Oladimeji, arrested one of the suspects – a 48-year-old male – at his hideout in Umuahia, the Abia State capital on April 24.

His arrest, according to the police spokesman, was in response to a directive by the Commissioner of Police in the state, Ahmed Barde, to track down the killers of the officers and the couple.

It was gathered that the suspect, an indigene of Mpam in Ahaizu Mbaise Council Area of Imo State, confessed to being the sector commander of IPOB in the Mbaise community in the state and subsequently assisted the operatives in arresting three members of his syndicate at their hideout, while others escaped.

The three other arrested suspects, all males, were said to be indigenes of the Umuokiria community in the Ahaizu Mbaise Local Government Area (LGA) of the state.

“In the course of the investigation, the suspects all confessed to being members of the dreadful IPOB/ESN syndicate terrorising the good people of Imo State and had a hand in the recent killing of five police officers and two civilians at Ngor Okpala (Council Area),” Okoye said.

Recovered from the suspects were one cut-to-size AK-47 rifle, 190 rounds of live 7.62 mm ammunition, two AK-47 magazines, two cut-to-size double-barrel guns, and one locally fabricated beretta pistol were recovered from the suspects during the operation.

According to the police spokesperson, the arrested suspects “volunteered crucial information that assisted” the operatives in arresting four other suspected IPOB members at their second hideout at about 12:40 a.m. on April 27 in Itu, a community in the Ezinitte Mbaise LGA of the state.

“On sighting the operatives, the notorious criminal syndicate engaged them in a fierce gun duel but were overpowered by the super firepower of the combat-ready tactical squad which forced them to disarray and resulted in the arrest of four other suspects,” Okoye said.

Identifying other suspects, he stated that they are all males and indigenes of the state.

Okoye added that one of the arrested suspects was the chief priest of the syndicate and that their second hideout also served as their shrine. (Text, excluding headline: Channels TV)

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