The Nigerian police on Monday confirmed six people were killed following a clash between a local rebel group and security operatives in the country’s southeast region.
Two secret police personnel were among those allegedly killed by the outlawed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) group during the clash on Sunday in the southern state of Enugu, said a spokesman for the Department of State Security.
Peter Afunanya, the secret police spokesman, said in a statement that the incident was “clearly an unprovoked violent attack launched by IPOB on the (security) team”.
The security team was dispatched to the Emene area of Enugu to quell a riot by the group, said Daniel Ndukwe, the spokesman for the police in Enugu, while addressing the media on Monday.
Over 500 rampaging IPOB members had gathered at the area, burning tyres on the road and blocking road users in a violent protest that lasted for hours, said Ndukwe.
Ndukwe said the secessionist group macheted and gruesomely killed an unidentified man and set another ablaze, while also attacking police personnel resident in the area.
Two among the hoodlums were also gunned down by the police, while several escaped with bullet wounds, he said further.
“Five members of the group were arrested and they confessed to being members of the proscribed IPOB and had gone to the premises of a local school to hold a meeting and be trained in the martial art and self-defense skills,” Ndukwe added.
The Nigerian government had since 2017 proscribed the IPOB, which seeks a sovereign Biafran country made up of people from the southeastern part of Nigeria.
