IPOB Not Responsible For Death Of Two Hausa Traders – Rivers Police

Police authorities in Rivers state have denied claims that the suspects behind the killing of two Hausa natives at Oyigbo town in Oyigbo Local Government Area of the state were not members of Indigenous People of Biafran (IPOB).

A spokesman for the Northern Community in Rivers, Alhaji Musa Saidu, had alleged that two traders were killed and two others wounded when irate youths suspected to be members of IPOB attacked Hausa settlement in the area.

“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,” he claimed.

Saidu argued that the attack might not be unconnected with previous threats issued to Hausa community in Rivers by suspected IPOB members, urging Police to fish out the killers.

In reaction, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Rivers state Police Command, SP Nnamdi Omoni, dismissed the claims that IPOB members were responsible for the attacks. “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,” Omoni said.

“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.”