By Charles Igbo
It was a bloody day in Umuna, Onuimo Local Government Area, Imo State, when gunmen struck.
In order to kidnap an expatriate contractor, they gunned down the two Mobile Policemen attached to him on escort duties. And kidnapped the expatriate. Then, they killed two other men at the Imo River Bridge axis, headed to Okigwe.
A video in circulation showed the bodies of the two men, soaked in their own blood, and sprawled on the road.
The abducted expatriate, this medium gathered, was incharge of the construction of the Owerri-Okigwe road project, one of the signature projects of the Governor Hope Uzodinma.
9th December, 2022, was particularly bad in Imo. Earlier in the day, at Ubomiri in the Mbaitoli LGA, gunmen had shot and killed an elder brother of renowned Nollywood Actor, Osita Iheme, popular as Paw-paw. The Ihemes are from Ubomiri.
They, also, invaded a market, Afor Uruala, and set ablaze shops and vehicles.
Finland-based Simon Ekpa, self proclaimed disciple of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, Leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, had declared a shut-down of the South-east and ordered people to sit-at-home for five days, beginning from Friday, 9th December.
Many people are attributing the attacks to Ekpa’s order.
IPOB distanced the organization from Ekpa’s order, and promised it would as much as it can, provide security for South-easterners, and markets.
