Imo police intensify manhunt of perpetrators of Orogwe massacre

Imo State Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Ahmed Barde, has ordered a discreet investigation into the killings of seven persons at Orogwe in Owerri West Local Council on Sunday night by suspected hoodlums.
 
The Command’s spokesperson, Michael Abattam, in a statement, yesterday, said the CP has also assured that, “the Command would go all out in ensuring that the perpetrators of this dastardly act are arrested and made to face the full wrath of the law.”
  
He appealed to citizens to remain calm and assist the police and other security agencies with credible information that would enhance their operations and effective service delivery.
    
Recounting the incident, he said: “On August 1, at about 2200hrs, the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Ogbaku Divisional Police Headquarters Owerri, got a distress call that armed bandits suspected to be members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its armed affiliate Eastern Security Network (ESN), came in a black Lexus Jeep and three motorcycles carrying two persons each, shooting sporadically at occupants in a building at Orogwe, Owerri West Local Council, belonging to one Sir Chima Ogbuehi, who resides in Lagos and some tenants were suspected to have been fatally injured.
    
“The Divisional Police Officer, swiftly mobilised his men with the support of a detachment of the Command’s Tactical Teams to the scene, on arrival the hoodlums had escaped almost immediately, snatching a blue-coloured Toyota Sienna Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) and the Command’s tactical team speedily went on their trail, while the DPO and his men rushed the injured ones to Federal Medical Centre, Owerri and evacuated the corpses to the mortuary.

“Regrettably, a total of seven persons lost their lives in the attack, while six others, who sustained injuries were rushed to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Owerri, Imo State.”
   
IN another development, operatives of the Command said they have killed one Osita Ogbuiri, a notorious criminal, who spare-headed the murder of eight people in Ohaji-Egbema Local Council of the state, that included a police inspector, (name not disclosed) and one, Charles Mgbarahu, Town Union President of Mmahu Community on July 21 and July 9, 2022 respectively.
    
The deceased criminal, according to the report, was a member of a dreaded cult group called “De-Gbam”, who had been involved in several violent attacks on private and public facilities and killings of security personnel and innocent citizens.
  
He was also said to be among the inmates that escaped from the Imo State Correctional Centre, Owerri, on April 5, 2021, where he was serving life imprisonment for the murder of two persons.