By Willie Udeze
The Joint Task Force, JTF made up of the Nigerian Army and Police security personnel has reportedly invaded some communities in Owerri West and Oguta Local Government Areas in Imo State on September 20,2016 as the Biafra agitators were said to be celebrating their heroes memorial day.
The members of IPOB usually mark the remembrance of their fallen members who died during the Nigeria Civil War.The event holds each year since the group began the struggle of what they see as the marginalisation of the South-Eastern part of Nigeria after th Nigeria civil war.
Our reporter gathered that the JTF who took the fight to some flash points of communities in Oguta LGA like Obudi Agwa, Mgbele, Amakpuruedere Izombe,and Awa axis attacked the Biafra agitators fiercely on September 20.
Reports have it that the security operatives came shooting , killing and wounding many young and old persons in these areas.
They were reported to had also set ablaze many houses, shops, markets; rendering many families homeless and in state of mourning following lost of many lives.
The JTF ,it was also gathered attacked IPOB members in Owerri West LGA, clamping down also on many members in Amakohia Ubi, Emeabiam, Obinze, Okwukwu and other suburbs.
Nigeria Newspoint gathered that the security operatives marked out Amakohia Ubi as the headquarters/ flash point of the IPOB activities in the Area and as such set out to flush out IPOB members there but in that process destroyed a lot of buildings,shops and markets as well.
Very many IPOB members were reported to have been seriously attacked leading to lots of lives being lost.
Out of many natives who where reported dead and/or alive include : one Bede Maduwuba,Sunny Ejiofor,Louis Uzoma and Cletus Onyeulo Duru.
Others are; Chukwudi Victor Duru, Bathram Odogwo, Canice Ajara,Paul Nwachukwu,etc.
Our reporter further gathered from the community youth leader who gave the list of the above persons that some died during the attack while a few escaped from Amakohia Ubi to unknown destination since the invasion of their community.
According to him,” these are some of the able bodied men who had helped in the development of this town.
“Now since the JTF besieged our peaceful community, you can’t see any man or young youth; women now run this area”, he lamented.
The youth leader who spoke under anonymity disclosed that many houses, shops, were set ablaze,” burnt down completely”
He cited as a devastating example; one of the young men who is on the run,Chukwudi Victor Duru who hails from Umuike. He said he lost some relations.
According to him, Chukwudi Victor and his only brother, Cletus Onyeulo have not been seen or heard from since the September 20, 2016 invasion of the community by the JTF.
It was gathered as well that Chukwudi, a retiree from a private company, with wife, and four children lost his only house, stores and every thing he made in life as a result of the clamp down for being an IPOB member.
“His house was among the houses that were burnt during the incident and his brother, Cletus Onyeulo Duru, was equally shot,we can’t tell if he survived or not”, he moaned.
The youth leader had disclosed that Chukwudi built the house with his retirement benefits, lamenting it was razed completely in few minutes.
It will be recalled that the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB has been declared a terrorist group by President Muhammad Buhari administration.
Their activities were thereafter outlawed in the country and since then any one professing to belong to IPOB has become an endangered specie.
