Soldiers of the 14 Brigade, Ohafia, stationed at Aba, Abia State have killed a gunman suspected to be a sit-at-home enforcer for the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
The gunmen was eliminated at the Osisioma Ngwa area in Aba, along the Enugu – Port Harcourt Expressway.
Sources revealed that the separatists warned traders and motorists against doing business to observe the sit-at-home order.
They destroyed goods belonging to the traders who displayed their wares along the expressway.
The gunmen, fully hooded, operating in two ash-coloured Sienna and Hummer buses, attacked an eatery and smashed the glass window panes as customers scampered to safety.
The gunmen also accosted an 18-seater bus heading to Port Harcourt in the Ugwunagbo area and ordered the passengers to alight and set it ablaze.
They also snatched a Lexus jeep belonging to a medical doctor along the expressway.
Eyewitnesses told newsmen that the gunmen set the jeep ablaze as it stopped a few metres after they snatched it from the owner. A vehicle with a government number plate was also set ablaze.
Following the sporadic shootings, soldiers of the 14 Brigade cordoned off access to the Osisioma Ngwa to the expressway, Tonimas junction, Bata, Ariaria junctions, as well as the Umuode-Umuojima areas, which created tension in the city, forcing business owners to close their shops.
However, a security source from the 14 Brigade, Ohafia, said that the military later chased after the gunmen into the Umuojima area, engaged them in a gun battle, killing one of them and inflicting bullet injury on others.
The body of the deceased gunman was said to have been recovered by the soldiers.
It was also gathered that a security personnel was shot and is receiving treatment in an undisclosed private hospital.
A Toyota Sienna bus and another vehicle used by the gunmen during the operation were said to have been recovered with blood stains.
The Public Relations Officer, 14 Brigade, Lt. Innocent Omale, is yet to issue a statement on the incident.
Proofreading by Gift Luckson, Editor at Neptune Prime.
