Ndi Imo | Suspected ESN leader beaten to death by mob for trying to enforce Sit- at -home in Imo state.
Suspected ESN leader beaten to death by mob for trying to enforce Sit- at -home in Imo state.
The deceased, an escaped inmate was identified as Obinwanne Iwu. According to the Imo state police command spokesperson, Mike Abattam, who confirmed the incident on Monday in a statement said that Iwu and other persons alleged to be members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) were trying to enforce the Sit-at-Home order.
The command image maker, Abattam said that trouble started when Iwu and some persons believed to be members of the Eastern Security Network (ESN) went to Umuagbavo Oru Ahiara in Ahiazu Mbaise LGA of Imo state to harass residents who before then were going about their normal activities to lock up and go back to their various homes and observe the Sit-at-Home order.
He said luck however ran out of the deceased,as the mob caught him, tied his hands behind his back and was given what is known in local parlance as 'community beating'. The other members of the group ran away out of fear of being lynched by the already agitated mob.
The force PRO said “One Obinwanne Iwu, 34 years, a native of Ahiara in the same local government area who is an escapee of Imo Correctional Centre, Owerri, went to the market with his gang trying to enforce a sit-at-home order of the proscribed IPOB/ESN terror group,”
“They were shouting at the top of their voices that ‘today is Monday and everybody must obey the sit at home order’.
“Efforts made by the police patrol team to arrest the perpetrators proved abortive as they all fled the scene on sighting the patrol team."
RecalI that IPOB had ordered a sit-at-home in the south-east every Monday on the 30th of July,2021 until their leader Nnamdi Kanu, who is currently standing trial by the Nigeria government for many charges is released from the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS).
The Sit-at-Home was later cancelled on the 9th of August,2021, but,many parts of Igbo land are always a shadow of it self on Mondays. Normal activities are however gradually returning to the major cities on Mondays
Meanwhile, Imo state commissioner of police, has directed a holistic investigation on the incident.
