Nigerian Army, Police Conduct House To House Search For IPOB Members In Ebonyi As Families Raise Alarm

The Nigerian Army and the Police Intelligence Response Team, have stormed houses in Ivo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State and Akaeze community to arrest suspected members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Eastern Security Network (ESN) officials in a house-to-house raid.

The latest raid is coming on the heels of a bloody attack by some military and police personnel on some peaceful Biafran protesters, demanding for a referendum and freedom from the Nigerian State on Tuesday, October 3, 2023 which resulted in the death of 12 persons with several others escaping with varied degrees of injuries.

The Tuesday bloody clash between security operatives and IPOB members has shattered the grave yard peace that once reigned in the South East since May this year when President Bola Tinubu assumed office.

Our correspondent learnt that the raid went on with many residents reporting that their family members, mostly young men, have been picked and taken away to undisclosed locations, while others are declared missing.

Sources revealed that a certain video cameraman, Joseph Ajala is among those missing in action as neither the military authorities nor his relatives could account for his whereabouts, hence his family is sore afraid of his chances of survival in the country because about two months after the incident, they have not seen or heard from their son, Joseph.

Besides, they fear for his life as the unrelenting raids of homes by the merciless security forces looking for IPOP members day and night, is sending more IPOP and other young men to their early graves.

Investigation revealed that Joseph Ajala, a well known IPOB activist whose job was to document the group’s peaceful event, before it tragically escalated into a violent confrontation with the military and the police, since October 3, has not been found dead or alive, thus making his family to be worried as to what may have happened to their son.

While the authorities have declared Mr. Ajala wanted for his alleged role in the production of some alleged seditious materials against the Nigerian State, IPOB leaders claimed the military were holding him captive.

It was gathered that the military and the police have sustained the raid which has resulted in the destruction of residences of many IPOB members following the State governor’s hard stance against all IPOB’s activities in the agrarian state, charging the security personnel to flush what he described as “criminal” elements out of the state.

“Some of our brothers were abducted here in Ivo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State by soldiers and police who tagged them IPOB members. Our people are seriously under attack, we don’t know who will come and rescue us from these unlawful attacks” our source confirmed.

Military sources have revealed that the Nigerian Army would sustain the raid on IPOB members for a long time in an apparent show of force and had moved in new ammunition and explosives into the 34 Artillery Brigade in Obinze, near Owerri in Imo State.

The sources also confirmed that the military has called for reinforcement to strengthen the push against criminal elements in the entire South East zone to be drawn from some battalions including the 231 Tank Battalion in Biu, Borno State, which is under the 3 Armoured Division, Jos, Plateau State.##

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