IMO: Armed police invade IPOB leader home for showdown, mayhem not as expected

Men of the Nigerian police descended on the house of an IPOB leader in Imo late Tuesday for a nocturnal operation that failed to arrest the suspect. But the mission left a trail, still.

Besides gunshots and a barrage of police trucks and an armoured personnel carrier that trudged through Umuneke-Nta in Isiala Mbano local government area of the state, there was also an inferno that gutted the particular house where Theddus Ekechukwu aka Moputu and his wife, a police officer, lived.

Witnesses said Moputu sensed earlier the police were staking him out, so he disappeared immediately.

It was after then the police moved in to search the house, and arrest him.

After a long fruitless search, the armed policemen gave up, but not without torching the house, destroying household appliances and fixtures.

However, neighbors said the house didn’t belong to the IPOB leader—that he was only taken in there by his elder brother.

Imo has been witnessing unrest attributed to the activities of the outlawed IPOB and its militant arm Eastern Security Network.

They have allegedly been attacking police installations and correctional facilities in the state.