In the early hours of Monday, two gunmen were killed when about 20 terrorists attacked members of the Okija Vigilante outfit in the Ihiala local government area of Anambra State in their camp at the Ogbenabo area of the community.
It was gathered that Okija Vigilante is considered one of the most effective in the local government as the leadership of the community had been able to restore adequate security through a vibrant outfit. The Monday attack, therefore, came as a surprise to the leadership of the community.
One of the members of the vigilante outfit who spoke in a circulating video said the gunmen attacked them in their camp.
He said: “These are people who call themselves unknown gunmen. They attacked us at our camp at Ogbenabo Okija this morning around 3am and started firing at us.
“We did not provoke them and they came to kill us for no reason. Maybe they are frustrated that Okija is secure.
” Unfortunately for them, they did not succeed. They thought they could overpower us, but we taught them a big lesson. We killed two of them and many others escaped with injuries. We want to assure our people that we are always ready for these hoodlums who come from outside the town.”
DSP Tochukwu Ikenga, the state Police Public Relations Officer who confirmed the Okija incident, said police operatives have inspected the scene of the event, adding that they have gone into partnership with the Okija branch of the Anambra Vigilante Group, AVG, to ensure that the fleeing suspects were apprehended.
“From what our men were able to find out, the fleeing suspects sustained bullet injuries and we are working with AVG operatives to ensure we track them down.
“We are calling on operators of private hospitals and managers of public hospitals in the area to be at alert and report people with bullet wounds when they come for treatment.
“You may not entirely reject them, but upon admission, make sure you alert the police, so we can pick such a person and investigate the source of such bullet injury,” Ikenga said.
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