A combined team of soldiers and police officers on Thursday shot and killed one Uchechi Enyioma, an auxiliary nurse in Okpulor village, Iriebe community of Obio-Akpor local government area of Rivers State.
She was said to be harbouring and providing medical services to four unidentified men who had bullet wounds on them.
Community sources said Uchechi is the welfare secretary of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB in nearby Oyigbo.
The men were alleged to have carried out attacks on police formations in the state last week which resulted in the death of seven police officers.
It was gathered that at Elimgbu police station, they were engaged in a shootout with police officers on duty resulting in the death of three officers and two of the gunmen. Others escaped with bullet injuries while abandoning the Hilux truck which they came with.
Sources said residents of the area who saw the gunmen enter the nurse’s apartment with guns, alerted security agents who came and surrounded the compound.
They broke into the apartment and shot four persons including Uchechi dead while another who tried to escape was also shot dead outside the room.
Speaking on the development when contacted, Mr Friday Eboka, the commissioner of police said the people who carried out the act were not policemen.
Eboka said before the District Police Officer (DPO) in charge of the area and his men could get to the scene, the killers had concluded their mission and fled.
He explained further that policemen who rushed to the scene only saw the five dead bodies and later recovered many charms.
He said: “That matter was reported at Oyibo Police Station. The people involved are not policemen. We heard that four of them were taking treatment in a clinic before the unknown armed men went there with two Hilux vans and a Sienna.
“They went there and people heard gunshots. Before police could get there, the gunmen entered their vehicle and drove away. The policemen met the dead bodies of the four guys and the young woman (nurse). I told the DPO to move those dead bodies while we investigate the matter.
“But, obviously, they are not policemen. If there must be an operation by police, it must be reported at the nearest Police Station. The people that carried out the act are not policemen. It was unknown armed men and not policemen.
“The people they killed were actually receiving treatment of their gun wounds. When the DPO got there, they recovered the receipt of their treatment. They recovered charms. They were receiving treatment for gun wounds. The people that killed them are not policemen,”
