Contrary to reports circulating online, attributing the killing of two Hausa settlers at Oyigbo Local Government Area in Rivers State, the state police command has debunked the allegations, saying that the perpetrators were not members of Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB).
Recall that a spokesman for Northerner Community in Rivers, Alhaji Musa Saidu, claimed that IPOB were responsible for the violence that erupted in the area.
He said: “The suspected IPOB members armed with dangerous weapons attacked an area populated by Hausa indigenes on Saturday and again on Sunday, killing two petty traders while two persons sustained serious injuries.”
However, in reaction, the Rivers Police Public Relations Officer, SP Nnamdi Omoni, after confirming the incidence, said that IPOB were not responsible for the attacks.
According to him, ” We are very much aware of that incident. The only difference with the storyline we have is the labelling of the group as IPOB. That is what we are not in terms with.
“Investigation has been ordered in a bid to unravel identities of those that carried out the act. So for now labelling them IPOB is out of place. In the first place, there is nothing like IPOB.
“IPOB has been proscribed so nobody can operate under the guise of IPOB. IPOB in law is non-existent. What we are saying is that it has no legal backing.”