More than 12 persons were killed across South-East Nigeria over the weekend as hoodlums attacked residents while trying to enforce the five-day sit-at-home declared by a Finland-based terrorist, Simon Ekpa.
Ekpa is the leader of a break-away faction of the Indigenous People of Biafra but remains in Finland where he is based.
The sit-at-home order issued by the faction turned bloody on Friday, December 9 across Imo and in Enugu as gunmen wrecked havoc at various locations in both states.
Three policemen were killed, alongside a pregnant woman and eight others. A police van, market, shops and goods were also burnt in the process.
This Monday morning, INEC headquarters was bombed by the same hoodlums while three of the gang members were killed by security operatives who also arrested one of them alive.
Also in Imo, gunmen stormed Mbaitoli near Owerri killing Prince, Iheme the elder brother of a popular Nollywood actor, Osita Iheme, aka Pawpaw. The victim was shot dead while riding in the same vehicle with the state commissioner for solid minerals, Martins Eke who received machete cuts from the attackers.
A policeman was also shot dead at 7up Junction, in Orji area of Owerri, the state capital.
The sit-at-home enforcers also took their brutality to a location along Owerri-Okigwe road where they killed four persons. They later kidnapped two expatriates supervising the ongoing construction of the Phase 11 of the Owerri-Okigwe road.
At Umuna junction, the gunmen were reported to have also killed two other persons. At Mgbidi community in Oru East, the enforcers shot sporadically to disperse traders. It was learnt that some police officers were allegedly killed in a shootout with the gunmen,
while the police neutralised many of the bandits, forcing the survivors among them to flee with bullet injuries.