Hoodlums enforcing Simon Ekpa’s five -day sit-at-home order in the South East region has killed three persons, including a pregnant woman, were killed in Enugu State.
According to reports, the pregnant woman whose identity is yet unknown was killed by a stray bullet which got to her in the shop where she was hiding at New Market during a gun battle between policemen and the hoodlums on Saturday, December 10, 2022.
In some images which emerged online, two victims allegedly attacked by the hoodlums were seen lying dead in the pool of their blood, in front of the Enugu University Teaching Hospital.
Reports according to Punch stated that a senior police officer confirmed the vicious attack.
The unnamed senior officer however said that no policeman was killed, adding that a manhunt had been launched for the hoodlums.
Truth Live News gathered that the hoodlums who were 10 in number, stormed the New Market area as early as 6am, probably to shut down the market but they were confronted by policemen patrolling the market area to reassure traders of their safety.
The hoodlums and the policemen got into a gun battle and after which they set the police patrol vehicle ablaze while the officers fled the scene.
An eyewitness, Mike Ezeh, said, “I saw a group of boys around 6am this morning shouting at traders coming to market to go home. They were shouting, ‘Don’t you know there’s sit-at-home? Why are you disobeying it?’
“Shortly, I saw a police patrol vehicle coming and immediately, they engaged them in a shootout. I left my goods and ran to safety. After the shooting stopped I came out and saw they had set ablaze the police patrol vehicle parked in front of Colliery Hospital,”
In reaction to the attack, the Enugu State Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Ammani, ordered Area Commanders, Divisional Police Officers and Commanders of all the Tactical/Operational Units of the Command to ensure maximum deployment of all the command’s intelligence and operational resources under their watch, to effectively patrol and fetch out the hoodlums.
In a statement issued by the command’s spokesman, DSP Daniel Ndukwe, the CP described the sit-at-home as an illegitimate order and enjoined residents and law-abiding citizens “to remain vigilant, go about their lawful businesses and resist succumbing to the antics of the miscreants, including the spread of tension-causing fake news.”
The statement further revealed that normalcy have since been restored at the New Market area following the deployment of “a crack team of police operatives to hunt down the armed hoodlums, who shot sporadically and breached public peace in the area.”