BREAKING: Nigerian Army, Police Kill 16 IPOB’s Eastern Security Network Operatives In Abia

• The Nigerian Army had deployed combat helicopters, gun trucks, and troops to search some forests in the South-East states where the ESN was suspected of camping, according to SaharaReporters.

According to a military source, about 16 operatives of the Eastern Security Network (ESN) were killed in a joint operation carried out by the Nigerian Army and police on Wednesday.

According to the source, hundreds of security operatives attacked the ESN camp in Aba, Abia state, on Tuesday night, killing about 16 people and wounding others.

 

The operation, according to Eko hot blog, was in response to a series of attacks on security personnel in the South-East.

In the last three months, unknown gunmen have killed at least 20 security personnel in the area.

Police stations are also not left out in the assault as three of them have been razed in 2021.

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On Monday, three police officers were killed in a new attack in Abia state’s Ohafia LGA.

The soldiers were killed in Abiriba town during a’stop and search’ operation.

Shortly after they arrived in town for a routine operation, the gunmen ambushed them and carted away their rifles, according to reports.

The slain police officers were identified as Austin Ugwu, Longinus Ugochukwu, and Ama Ifeanyi.

IPOB leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, had in December 2020 launched ESN to protect the people of South-East and South-South regions from terrorists and bandits allegedly trooping in from the North.

Kanu described the outfit as a replica of the Western Nigeria Security Network, also known as Amotekun, earlier launched by the governors of the South-West to curb insecurity in the region.

Kanu had said, “The sole goal and objective of this newly created security outfit known as Eastern Security Network is to halt every criminal activity and terrorist attack on Biafraland.”

“This outfit, which is a vigilante group like the Amotekun in the South-West and the Miyetti Allah security outfit, will ensure the safety of our forests and farmland which terrorists have converted into slaughter grounds and raping fields.”

He added that the establishment of the security outfit became necessary following what he described as the “failure” of the governors of the South-South and South-East to put in place measures to protect the people in those regions.