Enugu Police exhume the corpse of a missing colleague at a suspected IPOB/ESN hideout. From Maurice Okafor, Enugu. The Enugu state police command yesterday reported it exhumed the corpse of its missing colleague, among other items recovered when a combined team of its tactical squad and Operation Restore Peace, raided suspected Indigenous People of Biafra(IPOB/ESN) forest at Agu-Ibeje in Enugu Ezike community, Igbo Eze North local government area of Enugu state.
A press statement which emanated from the office of the commands Police Public Relations Officer(PPRO), DSP Dan Ndukwe, disclosed that the raid was carried out on 11th and 12th August, based on intelligence gathering, without any loss of life on the side of the police. According to him, the police squad recovered different types of ammunition including pump action guns locally made pistols, double barrels and life cartridges in the suspected IPOB/ESN camp. Also, assorted types of vehicles, motorcycles and clothing materials including army camouflage and police uniform belonged to their victims.
The Enugu state Police command press statement read in parts,
“In pursuance of the crime-fighting strategies devised by the Commissioner of Police, Enugu State Command, CP Abubakar Lawal, FDC, to rid the State of criminals and their activities, Police Operatives of the Command drawn from Tactical Squads and Operation Restore Peace, between 11th and 12th August 2022, carried out tactical and intelligence-driven dusk to dawn raid of IPOB/ESN camp in a forest at Agu-Ibeje in Enugu-Ezike community of Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area. The hoodlums, on sighting the Operatives, engaged them in a gun duel, which led to the neutralization of one of them while several others escaped with varying degrees of fatal gunshot wounds, due to the superior firepower of the Operatives.
“The operation led to the discovery and exhumation from a shallow grave in the camp, the corpse of their male victim identified as Okpanachi Johnson, a Police Officer serving in Igbo-Eze North Police Division of the Command, who had gone missing on 30th of July, 2022, with all effort made to trace his whereabouts proving abortive.”
