The spate of killings and arson that erupted in Anambra State recently continued on Sunday as the marauding squads torched the county home of Joe Igboke, the Lagos-based All Progressives Congress chieftain, and the offices of the Department of State Services, and the Federal Road Safety Corps, all in Nnewi.
The gang, known as “Unknown Gunmen”, stormed some part of the industrial town where they shot sporadically and killed two passersby in the process.
The members operate openly, usually driving in a convoy of Sports Utility Vehicles and shooting as they move in commando-like styles. Some viral videos show the members wielding automatic assault rifles accosting drivers on major streets. They can be seen pulling out the drivers from such vehicles, shooting the drivers, and setting the vehicles ablaze.
In the past few days, the gang has unleashed a reign of terror in Anambra, ahead of a gubernatorial election slated to hold in the state on November 6. They have killed a number of high-profile sons of Anambra, including Dr. Chike Akunyili, the widower of former Nigerian Minister of Information and Culture, Prof Dora Akunhili, and Dr. Ezenwa, the Medical Director of St. Saviour Specialist Hospital, Okija.
The group has also shot and killed a number of security personnel including police officers some of whom were killed at checkpoints and other uniformed security officials. These are in addition to ordinary citizens who have been felled by the gang’s bullets in its reign of terror in the state.
Attacks by the group have forced the APC candidate in the November polls, Andy Ubah, to postpone indefinitely the kickoff of his campaign, The State Command of the Nigeria police has promised increased security for the politicians involved in the polls, but this has not doused the tension in the State. Reports say many politicians in the state have gone underground to avoid falling victim to the escalating violence.
No group has claimed responsibility for the strings of attacks, although some people have fingered the Indigenous People of Biafra, the group fighting for independence for the southeastern region. Known better by its acronym IPOB, the group has a military wing known as the Eastern Security Network.
IPOB has continued to claim its innocence in the killings going on, but many people find it difficult to reconcile that denial with the group’s insistence that the election scheduled for next month will not hold.
Eyewitnesses to the attacks say the attackers always shout during the operations that there will be no election in Anambra, which they say is part of Biafra land.
Apart from insisting that there will be no elections in Anambra, IPOB and its ESN operatives have also issued a sit-at-home order on Mondays in the region, insisting that on those days no economic or social activities must be carried out. In their latest round of orders, the group outlawed the hoisting of Nigeria’s national flag in the region.
To enforce the order some armed gunmen have set ablaze police stations in the state for flouting the ban on the Nigerian flag.
