It was a bloody Monday again in Imo State as not less than eight persons are feared to have lost their lives after a gunmen attack in Ohaji/Egbema LGA.
The sit-at-home order recorded casualties in the state as yet to be identified gunmen opened fire on a vehicle conveying workers of a construction company to site. It would be recalled that at Nkwo-Ogwu part of Aboh Mbaise, about two persons were killed and two vehicles burnt last Monday when unknown gunmen attempted to force people comply to the sit-at-home directives.
As at the time of this report, the total number of those who lost their lives in yesterday’s sad incident were not known yet, but it was learnt that four people died at the spot after the attack while another four could not survive in the hospital.
Trumpeta learnt that in the morning of yesterday, a vehicle conveying workers of Lee Engineering Company was attacked in an ambush by those whose identifies are yet to be ascertained.
According to sources, the incident happened in the Etekwuru-Assaa road. The company is incharge of the construction of the multi million naira gas plant facilities in Asaa part of Ohaji in Ohaji/Egbema LGA.
The source further revealed that the ambush was a surprise attack on the vehicle conveying the workers and there are further fears that none of the occupants would survive the attack.
Trumpeta was informed that the injured ones were taken to a hospital in Irette, Owerri West for treatment where some reportedly died later. The workers were been conveyed in a hummer bus to the location before staccato of gunshots were fired at them.
Efforts to speak to the police command in Imo State proved abortive. Similar attacks have been carried against workers servicing the gas plant as one of the support companies named Oil Serve had suffered similar attacks.
Few months ago, a construction company Zeroc had its equipment burnt at Waltersmith Industrial park, in the said Assa/Awarra location while the cluster Development Board Chairman, Godswill Uzomba kidnapped from the area is yet to be found.
Meanwhile, there was compliance by residents of Owerri and environs to the sit-at-home order of yesterday.
Our correspondents who moved around discovered that similar to what transpired last week Monday, banks and major shops in the state capital were closed for business. The major roads were scanty and only few vehicles operated.
In a related development, vehicular activities were disrupted last Saturday morning, on the ever busy Ogbaku/Izombe/Eziorsu road in Oguta LGA which of recent has become a major bunkering route after a gun duel between the Police and a yet to be identified group.
An impeachable source told Trumpeta Newspaper that early that fateful Saturday morning, at1.30, a group welding sophisticated weapons, in their numbers, attacked the Izombe Police Station in Oguta LGA.
The source revealed that the attack which took the Police by surprise claimed the lives of two Police men who had been on night duty.
It added that one of the Police officer died instantly while the other who had ran into the bush with his bullet wound was later found dead.
Although the attackers were said to have met little or no resistance, it was not too clear if they had casualties on their side. Police authorities who confirmed the attack however claimed it gunned down three of the unknown Gunmen leaving others with injuries.
Of recent, the Police at Izombe had mounted a road block at the front of its station where “stop and no search” activities have been going on including “interactions” with those involved in bunkering activities.
However, one mystery that has remained unraveled is the issue of the identity of the particular group that attacked the station as speculations are rife whether it was the “unknown gunmen”, “the army” or” aggrieved young men” in the bunkering business.
The Ogbaku/Izombe/Eziorsu road has of recent become a beehive of activities because of the bunkering deals hence the uncountable number of Police check points and those mounted by the locals along the road.
It would be recalled that not too long ago, two out of four Ejemekwuru youths who had mounted a bunkering check point in their village were shot dead by soldiers one early morning.
