On Friday evening, gunmen launched a violent assault on a police checkpoint at Opobo Junction along the Aba-Ikot Ekpene Expressway in Abia State, resulting in the deaths of two policemen and injuries to another. The officers were conducting their routine evening stop-and-search operation when the attack occurred.
Shortly after the incident, numerous police patrol teams arrived on the scene, causing residents to flee the area in panic. Witnesses reported that the attackers, numbering six, arrived in a Sienna sport utility vehicle.
The attack led to chaos, with shop owners along the road and traders at Ehere market closing their shops and abandoning their goods to escape the danger.
Earlier, SaharaReporters had covered an incident on May 30 where gunmen opened fire on a military checkpoint at Obikabia Junction in Aba, Abia State. These attackers, who also set the soldiers’ patrol truck ablaze, were reportedly enforcing a sit-at-home order declared by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to commemorate Biafra Day in the South-East region. Heavily armed and dressed in black, the gunmen fired shots indiscriminately at the junction.