Enugu police vow to fish out criminal elements enforcing sit-at-home order

• After two people were  killed

Enugu State Police Command on Saturday vowed to deal with criminals enforcing the sit-at-home order by a self- styled leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Mr Simon Ekpa.

Already, the police command has deployed operatives in strategic locations in the state to forestall any breakdown of law and order.

Some gunmen on Saturday morning reportedly killed two people and burnt a police patrol vehicle at the New Market area of Enugu, the state capital.

The state headquarters of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps is located close to where the attackers burnt the vehicle. New Market is about one kilometre to the state police headquarters.

Enugu State Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Ammani, in a statement by its Public Relations Officer, DSP Daniel Ndukwe, urged residents of the state to go about their lawful business and should not succumb to the miscreants’ antics.

The commissioner said he had ordered area commanders, divisional police officers and commanders of all the tactical/operational units of the command ‘to ensure the maximum deployment of all the command’s intelligence and operational resources at their disposal to effectively patrol and fish out miscreants that might want to disturb public peace and security, and/or disrupt the business and activities of law-abiding citizens, under the guise of enforcing illegitimate sit-at-home order’.

The commissioner urged the citizens to be security conscious and promptly report criminal suspects and their activities to the nearest police station or call the command’s emergency hotlines on 08032003702, 08075390883, 08098880172 or 08086671202; or alternatively send emails to infoenugupolice@gmail.com.

It was learnt that normalcy had been restored at the New Market axis of Enugu as security operatives were seen maintaining law and order.

Simon Ekpa, former head of Radio Biafra, had declared Dec 9 to Dec 14, 2022 sit-at-home in South-East states to sensitise the natives not to participate in the 2023 elections.

His order has been condemned by Ohanaeze Ndigbo, as well as the IPOB in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Mr Emma Powerful.

Powerful said, “IPOB never issued any sit-at-home order on these days mentioned above because we are not miscreants, senseless, or jobless people.

“Every Biafran and residents in Biafra Land should ignore such order from untrained and brainless individuals whose agenda is to make Biafra agitation unattractive to our people. Every Biafran must go to their normal business on those days.”