From OKEY SAMPSON, Aba
The newly appointed Abia State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Anthony Michael Ogbizi, yesterday said 37 suspected members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), who were arrested for alleged involvement in the unrest that enveloped the state in the past one week would be arraigned in court tomorrow.
Ogbizi stated this when he took the Inspector General of Police Special Team led by the Assistant Inspector General (Operations, Force Headquarters) AIG Taiwo Lakanu, to assess the level of damage to the Ariaria Police Division, which was burnt on Wednesday.
He said that 30 persons were reportedly arrested by soldiers along Isiala Ngwa area of the state, while seven others were among the arsonists that burnt and looted Ariaria Police Divisional Headquarters in Aba.
Ogbizi stated that the suspects would be arraigned in court tomorrow while investigation into the matter would continue. He said that efforts were ongoing to apprehend the others, who are still at large.
The suspects, according to the police commissioner, were arrested through intelligence gathering by the combined efforts of the IGP Team and officers of the police force that were on ground in Aba.
He disclosed that the Station Officer, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, who sustained serious injuries after he was attacked by the arsonists, died in the early hours of yesterday at an undisclosed hospital after doctors battled in vain to save his life. “They were armed with petrol bomb. They burnt police vehicles and carted away three pump action rifles and other police materials. Some officers were injured. In fact one of the injured police officers, an ASP is dead. The doctors tried their best to save him, but they couldn’t. Now, we have lost a soul. And you know what it takes to train a police officer. And you know the vacuum created. Once a police officer is gone, it takes a minimum of one year to train another,” Ogbizi said.