South-East: Police order officers to dress like ‘ordinary Nigerians’ in order to escape attackers

Heavily-armed gunmen in the early hours of Monday attacked Uzuakoli Police Station in the Bende local government area of Abia state, setting the station on fire.

It is not yet clear if policemen were shot dead or injured during the attack, which occurred about 4am, according to nearby residents.

Due to the incessant attacks on security agencies and their facilities, the state government had imposed curfew on four volatile towns which are Aba, Umuahia, Ohafia and Arochukwu.

It was gathered that the gunmen still continued the onslaughts on police stations by sacking the Uzuakoli Police Station.

The state government itself, despite the curfew, had last week alerted residents of a planned attack in parts of the state by militants and urged all to be vigilant.

Most policemen in the state now choose to appear in mufti except when they are in the stations.

The option to use mufti in the public was, according to Sahara Reporters, also ratified by the police authorities as a means of reducing the heavy human casualties in the South-East police force.

The attack on Uzuakoli is coming weeks after a similar incident took place in the World Bank Housing Estate in Aba when a police station was razed and property worth millions of naira were destroyed.

Apart from Abia, it was learnt that the gunmen also truck same yesterday in Ebonyi State and in Anambra State, although the location of the attacks were yet to be ascertained as of the time of filing this report.