POLICE detectives in Enugu have arrested 12 youths suspected to be members of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB)/Movement for Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) over an alleged plot to advance the cause of an Independent State of Biafra.
Sources said that the suspects were picked on Monday, at a popular Ogbete Market, while they were in a meeting on how to enforce their sit-at-home order scheduled to begin on September 23, 2016.
Confirming the story, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Ebere Amarizu, said that the suspects went into the market with public address system to “threaten and inflict fears” on the members of the public, precisely the marketers not to come to the market the next day.
Amarizu said that items recovered from the suspects included 21 handsets of different types, wireless microphone, leaflets in which some of them read: “IPOB for the betterment of your children and that of yourself,” “Please sit at home on 23/9/16 there will be no work , no school, no business,” “All hail Biafra.”
The Police image maker said that the suspects were helping the security operatives in their investigations, adding that they would soon be charged to court.
According to him, “Security is beefed up by the police command as people were seen today at the market conducting their transactions as usual.”
“In the light of the above, the Enugu State Command of the Nigeria Police, working in partnership with relevant security agencies and relevant stakeholders in the state, has advised members of the public, particularly law abiding people of the state not to allow themselves, children and wards to be used by any person under any guise to cause mischief in the state, as anyone caught will be made to face the full wrath of the law,” he added.
He further said “the Police, working in partnership with relevant security agencies in the state is ready to ensure that law abiding members of the public are not in any way molested or prevented from going about their normal lawful businesses.”