"Sit - at - home order" Two feared killed, many injured; recordstotal compliance in Ebonyi

Two persons were feared killed in a shootout between the police and suspected members of IPOB even as there was total compliance to the sit-at-home order by the Indigenous People Of Biafra in Ebonyi state.

All schools, Banks, markets, parks, government offices and other public place were shut down. There were also no human and vehicular movements within the capital city.

Some people who defied the directive at the early hours of Monday went home with injuries and total destruction of their belongings. All the streets were also deserted with heavy presence of security agencies and operatives of Ebubeagu at some designated junctions.

Violent activities and shootout between the police and suspected IPOB members which resulted to the death of two persons and destruction of properties were witnessed in some parts of Ebonyi state.

Police spokesperson, DSP Loveth Odah, said the hoodlums were killed in a gun battle with the police.

She explained that hoodlums were intimidating and forcing people to comply with the “sit-at-home’’ directive of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and had to be stopped.

She said members of the proscribed IPOB were intercepting motorcycles, molesting, threatening, and shooting sporadically into the air to scare people from engaging in their normal activities.

DSP Odah added that the police had secured the area and embarked on a “show of force’’ to maintain law and order in the state.

“One of the hoodlums lost his life when they opened fire on our men.

“People were going about their legitimate businesses and activities in the area but the hoodlums were distracting and forcing them to obey the IPOB’s `sit-at-home directive.

“They blocked some axis in the metropolis, collecting motorcycles and burning them,’’ Odah said..

However, a source at the Alex Ekwueme Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, said that about four corpses were brought into the morgue by the police.

It was gathered that some of the agitators divided themselves into groups and laid ambush in a forest along Ogbaga road where they intercept anyone who flouted the directive of sit-at-home, beat them up and set all their belonging ablaze.

An eyewitness said that many motorcycles were burnt while the victims flee with injuries.

A student of Ebonyi state university, who spoke confidentially noted that all academic activities were shut down.

Another school proprietor gave a notice to parents and guardians that school activities would be totally shut down.