BREAKING NEWS NATFORCE saves teenager from lynching 3 docked for theft of N6.5m textile materials 10 killed, 30 injured as soldiers invade IPOB prayer session

Details have emerged of the attack by soldiers on members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) on Tuesday evening in Aba, Abia State.

Investigations by The AUTHORITY revealed that 10 pro-Biafra agitators were killed while 30 others were injured when soldiers in 30 trucks invaded the National High School on Port Harcourt Road, Aba, the venue of the group’s prayer meeting.

The armed soldiers are yet to be identified by the authorities.

Survivors of the attack told The AUTHORITY that the pro-Biafra members had gathered at the school from where they planned to embark on a protest march to several parts of the city against the continued detention of their leader, Nnamdi Kanu.

The IPOB members said they anticipated that trouble was lurking and had to secure themselves by locking the entrance gate to the school, thus making it difficult for the soldiers to gain access into the school’s playground. The soldiers who stormed the school were reportedly accompanied by a detachment of the police in about 30 vans. Some of the soldiers and policemen reportedly scaled the gate and arrested the Aba IPOB Coordinator and some of his assistants.

The soldiers, according the escapees, ordered the IPOB members who were holding the prayer session to leave the area, adding that “as soon as the order was given, the soldiers started shooting in all directions.” When normalcy returned, the sources said that 10 corpses were found while 30 others sustained various degrees of injuries. The AUTHORITY learnt that while the shooting lasted, shops were immediately shut while their owners scampered for safety. It was learnt that the soldiers arrested dozens of IPOB members and took them to the Police Area Command headquarters at about 5pm.

An IPOB official, who pleaded anonymity, said that over 30 members who sustained bullet wounds and other degrees of injuries are receiving medical treatment at various hospitals in Aba. At the time of filing this report, the Army Public Relations Officer, 14 Brigade, Ohafia, Major Sidney Mbaneme, could not be reached for comments. But the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Ezekiel Onyeke, confirmed the incident but insisted that only two people were killed during the shooting.

Authority