LAGOS — Ten people including two police officers have been killed and a number of
students abducted in
Nigeria's southeast, police said Friday, in a region where
separatist tensions are on the rise.
اضافة اعلان
Dozens of security operatives have been killed during attacks by gunmen on
checkpoints, police stations and prisons in the region in the past few
months.
On Thursday, gunmen stormed Obosi police station in Anambra state but were
engaged in a gunbattle by police officers on duty.
"Two police operatives paid the supreme price," state police
spokesman Ikenga Tochukwu said in a statement, adding an investigation was
under way to identify the perpetrators.
He said the gunmen also set part of the police station and two vehicles ablaze
before fleeing.
In a separate incident Thursday, a team of police and other security forces
repelled an attack on Orlu police station in neighboring Imo state, police
said.
A senior police officer who asked not to be named told AFP that eight gunmen
were killed in the shootout.
Southeast Nigeria has seen a surge in deadly attacks targeting police and
other security forces in the past few months.
The police have blamed the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), an outlawed
separatist movement seeking independence for the Igbo people of the southeast,
for some of the attacks.
But
IPOB has denied the charges.
In another incident in the region, the Abia state government said some
university students and passengers were kidnapped by unknown gunmen Wednesday
on a highway to neighboring Imo state.
Abia information commissioner John Okiyi Kalu said the students "ran
into the armed gang who marched them into the nearby forest along with other
yet to be identified travelers".
"Two of the students managed to escape... while others are still being
held," he said.
Kidnapping by criminals for ransom is frequent in Nigeria.
Read more region and world news.
.jpg)
.jpg)
