Corporal killed in Anambra police station attack

• Many others sustained varying degrees of injury during the attack in the early hours of Tuesday.
• The source said that the hoodlums also attacked the Oba Civic Centre.

Gunmen terrorising Nigeria’s south-east region have attacked a police station in Anambra state.

One police corporal was gunned down during the attack on Oba Police Divisional Headquarters in Idemili South Local Government Area.

Many others sustained varying degrees of injury during the attack in the early hours of Tuesday.

The source said that the hoodlums also attacked the Oba Civic Centre.

The details of the attack are still sketchy, but it coincided with a declaration by a secessionist leader, Simon Ekpa, who called for a month-long hostility against government establishments in the South-East, starting from August 28, 2024.

The Police Public Relations Officer PPRO, SP Tochukwu Ikenga, confirmed the incident in a statement.

He disclosed that said, a joint security force comprising the Army, Navy, Civil Defence, and other agencies are currently conducting a joint operation in Oba and its environs.

He said the suspected armed group shot sporadically and threw petrol bombs, causing fires in some offices and the civic centre.

The PPRO’s statement read in part,”The Police-led Joint Security Force comprising the Army, Navy, Civil defence and other security agencies are currently in a joint on-slaught operation within Oba and its environments.

“Following, an attack in the early hours of today 3/9/2024 on Oba Police Divisional Headquarters and Oba Civic Centre. The suspected armed successionist 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 Centre

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

“The Commissioner of Police, CP Nnaghe Obono Itam, while condemning the act, described the invasion of security facilities and hostility towards security agents as an attack on the soul of a nation and vows to bring those behind the unholy act to book.”