“No detainee was set free because we don’t have any in that station. What the hoodlums succeeded in doing was to destroy documents, chairs and tables and thereafter set the two patrol vehicles at the station on fire”, the Police Public Relations Officer in Abia State, Geoffrey Ogbonna, a Superintendent of Police, told our reporter on Sunday.
“However, the building was not raised down; I was there this morning on an assessment visit”, disclosed Ogbonna.
Our roving reporter revealed that some yet to be identified gunmen on Sunday set ablaze the popular Police Station at Ubani Township Market in Umuahia North Local Government Area of Abia State injuring a policeman who tried to repel the attack on the station by the gunmen.
He stated that the gunmen numbering many arrived the station at about 9:45 am on Sunday, firing at any object they saw. However, after meeting no major resistance, they entered the offices and set chairs, tables and documents on fire before eventually setting ablaze two patrol vans packed at the compound.
The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Geoffrey Ogbonna, a Superintendent of Police, told our roving reporter that the hoodlums went from office to office ransacking documents, chairs and tables and thereafter set them on fire.
The police image said when asked whether they released any detainee, “No detainee was there to be released by them as at the time they came, but they set some documents, chairs and tables, including the vehicles on fire and left. The building is intact contrary to reports that it was raised down”.
According to him, the police have mounted a manhunt on the hoodlums, even as he appealed to the public to provide the police with useful information that could lead to the arrest of the gunmen.
This is happening barely hours after the police in Abia State arrested two armed robbery suspects in the Ogbor Hill axis of Aba metropolis on Sunday, May 9, 2021, who, with a Pathfinder Jeep, robbed people at about 4am.
Fielding questions from our roving reporter in Umuahia, the police image maker, revealed that two of the five man gang were arrested by the police; while three fled from the scene.
He described the arrest of the hoodlums as a major breakthrough by the police in its war against crimes and criminalities in Abia State.
The image maker further disclosed that apart from the suspects who were arrested, the police also recovered the Pathfinder Jeep and arms and ammunition they were operating with and assured that his men will not rest on their oars until they flush out criminals out of the state.
Uche Nwosu is a two time Shell Petroleum PLC award winner in the year 2000;
He won the Shell Award on Investigative Journalism and Environmental Cleanliness.
