In a statement on Monday, he described the incident as “unprovoked, unwarranted attack and gruesome murder”.
Armed non-state actors wreaking havoc in Nigeria’s beleaguered South East region have killed a clutch of security operatives in Enugu State.
The security operatives, two police officers and three Neighbourhood Watch Group members, were killed in an ambush within the Igga community in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area (LGA).
The spokesman of Enugu police command , DSP Daniel Ndukwe, confirmed the incident, saying three suspects have been arrested in connection to the ambush.
In a statement on Monday, he described the incident as “unprovoked, unwarranted attack and gruesome murder”.
According to him, the killing of the security operatives was carried out by harboured criminal members of the community last Friday evening.
He disclosed that the combined security team of three policemen and four Neighbourhood Watch Group were providing security for a team of visiting investors from Lagos on a tour of a proposed agricultural investment site when they were brutally murdered.
“However, the team was ambushed and attacked by a large group of the criminal elements, who opened fire on them,” said the police spokesperson.
He said the police team mobilised to the scene and rescued an assistant superintendent of police, a neighbourhood watch operative and three investor team members.
“But the eventually murdered members of the team went missing and unaccounted for.
“However, in the course of a full-scale investigation, a search and manhunt operation launched thereafter, three males suspected to have masterminded the attack were arrested.
“Their revelations during interrogation led to the discovery and recovery of the slain two policemen and three neighbourhood watch group members in the forest on May 4, 2024,” he said.
The spokesman said their lifeless bodies were taken to the hospital, confirmed dead by doctors and deposited in the mortuary for preservation and autopsy.
Ndukwe said that the state commissioner of police, Kanayo Uzuegbu, described the murder of the security personnel as inconceivable, cruel and unwarranted.
“The commissioner has also advised members of the Igga community, particularly the criminal elements directly involved in the unthinkable and wanton act of murdering serving police officers and others, to voluntarily surrender themselves to the police without delay,” he added
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