Sit-At-Home Enforcers Burn Vehicles, Tricycle In Abia

Some members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) alleged to be Simon Ekpa led faction, popularly as Auto-Pilot took residents and security agencies in Aba, the commercial nerve of Abia State by surprise as went on rampage early hours of Monday enforcing the sit-at-home order.

This is even as residents have expressed fears over the possible effect of the one week sit-at-home in the southeast announced by Simon Ekpa.

The said IPOB members in what appeared to be a coordinated attack operated in Aba North and South local government areas of the state respectively as they sent the city to panic mood as they launched attack on both commercial, individual car owners including pedestrians at various flashpoints in sight, taking advantage of the deplorable nature of roads within the areas that they operated.

Sources within the security agencies told our correspondent that the incidents happened in the early hours of Monday between 5:30-6:30am.

According to the sources, the IPOB members scattered themselves in various parts of the city, especially areas where their access roads were in deplorable conditions.

“Normally, we do a joint patrol around the city on Monday’s. There is no specific time, but we usually take off from the Aba Area Command headquarters of the Nigerian Police and returned to the same location after our usual Monday Show of Force.”

A resident who gave his name as Gilbert narrating the burning of a commercial vehicle at No.1 Ngwa road disclosed that the said IPOB Sit-At-Home enforcers stormed the popular junction linking Port Harcourt road, Ngwa road, Asa and Cemetery road by surprise at about 5:30am.

Gilbert said people who had come out at that time including those returning from vigil and were about boarding vehicle to their various destinations scampered for safety on sighting the group dressed in black clothes.

According to Gilbert, the group on getting to the car, poured petrol and set the commercial bus ablaze.

It was a similar scenario at Uratta area of ana North LGA, where two commercial buses conveying bread and food stuff respectively and a commercial tricycle were burnt by some IPOB enforcers.

It was gathered that the group who were heading towards the Ariaria junction by Expressway, upon noticing that soldiers attached to the 144 Battalion were heading to the location flee to different directions.

Unconfirmed reports have it that a heavy duty truck conveying chippings to a location was equally burnt by the group of sit-at-home enforcers.

Our correspondent who visited some of the scenes where the automobiles were burnt, including the popular Ngwa road junction reports that an army patrol van was stationed some distance from the junction.

Our correspondent also reports that the burnt automobiles have all been evacuated, reportedly, by security agents and their owners.

The situation created fears on the mind of Aba residents when the news of the various attacks filtered into town as some who had wanted to travel to other parts of the state were forced to shelve their intended trips, but visits to other parts of Aba layer in the day show that like every other Monday, business activities were going on in various locations while major markets were like a ghost town.

Contrary to reports of suspected casualties, a senior security official who spoke on anonymity said there was no engagement of gunshot from either side, except for what he described as warning shots fired into the air which stopped the hoodlums from advancing into the major streets.

Our correspondent reports that joint patrol of security agencies in the state were on a Show of Force at the time of filing the report.