GUNMEN ATTACK POLICE CHECKPOINT, KILL THREE PERSONNEL
Gunmen attacked a Police checkpoint at Umuagbom Ihitte along the Owerri/Aba highway and killed two armed policemen on duty and a Vehicle Inspection Officer on Wednesday, January 24, 2023, at about 1100hrs.
Information available indicates that the 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.
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.
The late morning sporadic shootings caused pandemonium and some hapless motorists and commuters who were held at the checkpoint abandoned their vehicles and luggage to scamper for safety in the nearby bush.
Also, natives of the surrounding villages in Ihitte and Umuowa communities in Ngor Okpala LGA who were alerted by the broad day shootings deserted their homes for fear of stray bullets while the gunfire lasted.
Operatives of the Nigeria Air Force (NAF) manning the military checkpoint at Airport Junction, Umuowa rushed to the scene on getting the information but the hoodlums had fled leaving their dead victims in their pools of blood.
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