Residents of Bende road in Umuahia, capital of Abia State, woke up on Tuesday morning to a sight of a fetish object in front of the Police Area Command.

A visit to the scene revealed the object placed in the area where human and vehicular movements have been restricted.

Some residents, who discussed in hushed tones, said it was placed there to protect security operatives from a series of attacks.

Abia is one of the states where gunmen suspected to be members of the Eastern Security Network (ESN), the armed wing of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), have staged multiple attacks.

Officers have been killed and many police stations set ablaze in recent times. Efforts made to get the reaction of SP Geoffrey Ogbonna, Police Public Relations Officer in the state, on the development did not yield results as he neither answered calls nor responded to messages sent to him.(Daily Trust)