The Imo State Police Command has paraded a man its operatives caught with cannon gunpowder and steel pipes popularly used in the South-East during burials as a bomb manufacturer.
Mike Abattam, the public relations officer of the command said the command’s operatives on April 20th, raided a hideout of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB and its militia wing, the Eastern Security Network (ESN), where they allegedly manufacture Improvised Explosive Devices used in attacking Police Stations and Government facilities in the state.
According to Abattam, the police operatives received an intelligence report and immediately mobilised to the hideout of the group located at Uba Umuaka in Njaba LGA of Imo State and raided the camp.
He said: “In the course of the raid, one Simeon Onigbo ‘m’ age 50 years was arrested. On the spot interrogation, the suspect admitted to being the manufacturer of most of the Improvised Explosive Devices ( I.E.Ds) used in attacking police stations in the State and outside the State.
“On searching the criminal hideouts items recovered includes the following: One already prepared Improvised Explosive Devices, Fifty-eight pieces of Cannon Steel Pipe, Two Chisels, One Monday Hammer one and a half bag of Potassium Nitrate, thirty Pounds Weight of Sulphur, Forty Pounds Weight of dry Sand, Ten Pounds Weight of Red Sand, Thirty Pounds Weight of Gun Powder, Half Bag of Charcoal, Thirty Electronic Motorcycle Batteries and Seven Lengths of 8 millimetres Iron Rods.
“Meanwhile, the Command’s Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit (EOD) has taken over the recovered bomb for technical analysis and subsequently for possible detonation,” he said
Abattam added that an investigation is ongoing and that the suspect has made useful statements about other members of his gangs outside the state who patronise him.
According to him, operatives of the Command are not relenting and all efforts are on top gear to arrest the named suspects.
