The Ebonyi Police Command has confirmed that Afikpo town was on Friday invaded by suspected militants.
George Okafor, the command’s Public Relations Officer disclosed this on Saturday, saying the militants came from Ikoro-uko area of Cross River.
He said the militants were about 20 and arrived in two speed boats fitted with several general purpose machine guns and also possessed grenades among other sophisticated weapons.
“We feel they are militants reacting to the Federal Government’s revocation of the pipeline facilities protection contract, hitherto handled by ex-militants.
“They anchored at Okporikpo beach in Afikpo before launching their onslaught from the Ndibe and then Unwana beaches in the town,” he said.
Mr. Okafor said the indigenes residing around the beaches, informed the police about the militants’ movement, which made the command deploy officers around the beach areas for maximum protection.
“The militants on noticing that the police have cordoned the entire areas, started shooting sporadically, which made us ‘return fire’ and eventually repelled them.
“An inspector of police died during the shootout, but we cannot confirm whether they had any casualty because we did not recover any corpse on their side.
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