ABUJA, June 7 (NNN-Xinhua) — Five Biafra rebels were killed on Sunday as Nigerian troops and police special forces thwarted an attack on a police station in the southern state of Imo, said a spokesperson for the army.
The Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB), an outlawed group, was suspected of carrying out the attack, the spokesperson, Mohammed Yerima, said in a statement.
One of the killed, identified as Joseph Nnachi, a senior member of the IPOB, had been “organizing attacks against security agencies and government establishments” in the country’s troubled southern region, according to Yerima.
Another member of the IPOB was arrested, Yerima said, adding that “he has been assisting security forces with useful information.”
The southern part of Nigeria has seen a series of gunmen attacks on security formations like police stations and prisons in recent months.
Meanwhile, 11 residents and attackers were killed in a gunmen attack in the southwestern state of Oyo on Saturday, Nigerian police said Sunday night.
A group of gunmen on motorcycles launched the attack in Igangan, a town in the Ibarapa North area of the state, killing residents and burning houses, the police in Oyo said in a statement.
Some of the suspected attackers were among those killed, as local vigilante groups fought back, according to the statement, without detailing the casualties on both sides.
The razed property includes a number of buildings, vehicles, the palace of the traditional chief, and a filling station.
The police had deployed “intelligence and tactical apparatuses, consisting of mobile force personnel, patrol units and other tactical teams in concert with local hunters and vigilante groups from the community” to forestall further breakdown of law and order in the area, said Oyo police chief Ngozi Onadeko. — NNN-XINHUA