NDLEA revealed on Wednesday in Owerri that two of its officers, together with three other security operatives, were killed by gunmen in Ehime-Mbano council area, Imo State on Tuesday.
Mr Abubakar Wali, the NDLEA’s Commander in Imo, told reporters that the attack killed one officer each from the Nigerian Air Force, the Nigeria Police, and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.
He stated that one officer from the NDLEA and one from the Nigerian Navy were shot in the incident and were being treated at the Federal University of Technology Teaching Hospital in Owerri.
According to Wali, the soldiers were members of the Forward Operation Base, a security organization that also includes members of the Nigerian Army and the Nigeria Immigration Service.
He claimed that cars belonging to the security team were destroyed, and that the slain officers’ arms and ammunition were taken away, though an NDLEA gun was recovered.
“It’s unfortunate that we lost two officers and injured one.”
“Investigation is ongoing, and the cowardly perpetrators of this heinous act will be apprehended and prosecuted accordingly,” Wali promised.
Speaking on the heinous murder, Imo Gov. Hope Uzodinma expressed concern that security personnel assisting in the state’s fight against criminality were being attacked.
He urged inhabitants of the nearby villages to provide vital information to security officials that could lead to the arrest of the fleeing assailants.
Mr Mohammed Barde, the state Commissioner of Police, told reporters at the scene of the attack that the gunmen attacked the security personnel on Obowo-Ehime Mbano Road.
He went on to say that the assailants fired gunfire and grenades at the security guards, killing some of them.
