Imo Again: Gunmen kill APC chieftain, Security Personnel, Kidnap others
Unknown Gunmen have killed the ward chairman of the All Progressives Congress in Umuchoke ward in Okwe in the Onuimo Local Government of Imo State, Christian Ihim.
The gunmen, after killing Ihim, who is popularly known as Zako, kidnapped five other chieftains of the ruling party in the community.
Similarly, another group of gunmen suspected to be IPOB/ESN members attacked a Police checkpoint at Umuagbom Ihitte along the Owerri/Aba highway and killed two armed policemen on duty and a Vehicle Inspection Officer.
The gunmen had struck between 10 am and 11 am in the morning and reportedly shot dead the officers on duty. Other policemen and VIO personnel on duty at the time ran for their lives and managed to escape when the gunmen opened fire on their colleagues.
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It was gathered that the gunmen before opening fire on the cops had stealthily warned some passengers to leave the scene or be ready for “anything they see” and immediately the ‘bad boys,’ clad in black attire attacked.
The gunmen struck when they became impatient with the policemen and could no longer wait on a long queue of vehicles stopped and parked sideways by the policemen conducting stop and search and their VIO counterparts screening the vehicles plying the road.
Meanwhile, apart from killing and kidnapping the APC chieftains, the gunmen also invaded a neighbouring community called Okwelle and also kidnapped a female member of the APC identified as Onyinyechi Egenti.
The slain chairman is said to be a former aide of the immediate past national Organising secretary of APC, Emma Ibediro.
The killings and abductions in Imo are coming a few days after the Sole Administrator of the Ideato North LGA, Chris Ohizu, was kidnapped and beheaded after his abductors collected N6 million ransom.
