The Police in Rivers said it has carried out a raid on cell operated by members of the proscribed Indligenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and arrested 10 members.
The Police disclosed that the raid was carried out at Oyigbo in Oyigbo Local Government Area of the state, where IPOB have their training camp.
Speaking at a press conference, Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Okon Effiong said training camp and cells of another illegal security outfit, Civilian JTF in Ahoada town in Ahoada-East Local Government Council and Omoku in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of the state were also raised.
The exercise led to arrest of 7 suspected members of the illegal outfits.
According to the Police boss, 4 of the arrested IPOB’s members were identified to be the masterminds of the burning down of Oyigbo Police station during the #EndSARS protest in 2020.
He said the raid was made possible following intelligence report to the Police that IPOB members have started establishing cells in a Housing estate at Oyigbo in Rivers.
“So, the building they stay in, the particular estate, was raided. Let us not disclose the name of the estate so that the people there will not be threatened. Ten of them were arrested and interestingly, four of the arrested persons were identified as key players in the burning down of Oyigbo Police station during the #EndSARS riot.
“One of them have been on the wanted list of Police right from February 2022. We are still working on them and we want to believe that in the next few days, wherever, because we are committed to ensuring peace, we will not like to find any situation where IPOB cells are established in the state. When we have such information, we always act on them,” Effiong said.
The Police commissioner stated that the command got intelligence report that a group of people were engaged in arms-training in the state and had already traveled to the North-East part of the country to train as Civilian JTF.
