Breaking!! Nigeria Army Kill 16 IPOB Eastern Security Network Operatives In Abia State

A military source told Sahara Reporters on Wednesday that about 16 operatives of the Eastern Security Network (ESN) were killed in a joint operation between the Nigerian Army. According the Report, hundreds of security personnel attacked the Eastern Security Network camp in Aba, Abia state, on Tuesday night, killing about 16 people and injuring others.

Sahara Reporters earlier reported that the Nigerian Army had deployed combat helicopters, gun trucks, and soldiers to search some forests in the South-East states where the Eastern Security Network (ESN) was suspected to be camping.

A joint operation of the Nigerian Army and police has led to the death of about 16 operatives of the Eastern Security Network (ESN), a military source told Sahara Reporters on Wednesday. The source stated that hundreds of security operatives on Tuesday night launched a heavy attack on the camp of Eastern Security Network (ESN) in Aba, Abia state, killing about 16 of them and injuring others.

Sahara Reporters gathered that the operation was in response to a series of attacks against security personnel in the South-East. Not less than 20 security operatives have been killed in the region by unknown gunmen in the last three months. Police stations are also not left out in the assault as three of them have been razed in 2021.

Three policemen were killed in a fresh attack in Ohafia Local Government Area of Abia state on Monday. The police officers were killed while on a stop and search operation in Abiriba town. The gunmen were said to have ambushed them and carted away with their rifles not long after they arrived in the town for a routine operation.

The slain police officers were identified as Austin Ugwu, Longinus Ugochukwu, and Ama Ifeanyi. IPOB leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, had in December 2020 launched the Eastern Security Network to protect the people of South-East and South-South regions from terrorists and bandits allegedly trooping in from the North.

Nnamdi Kanu described the outfit as a replica of the Western Nigeria Security Network, also known as Amotekun, earlier launched by the governors of the South-West to curb insecurity in the region. The sole aim and objective of this newly formed security outfit known as Eastern Security Network is to halt every criminal activity and terrorist attack on Biafraland,” Nnmadi Kanu stated on his official Facebook page in December 2020.

According to his words; “This outfit, which is a vigilante group like the Amotekun in the South-West and the Miyetti Allah security outfit, will ensure the safety of our forests and farmland which terrorists have converted into slaughter grounds and raping fields.”

Nnamdi Kanu added that the establishment of the security outfit became necessary following what he described as the failure of the governors of the South-South and South-East to put in place measures to protect the people in those regions.

Recently, it was learnt that some Nigerian soldiers resigned and joined the Eastern Security Network (ESN) on the grounds that the Eastern Security Network (ESN) being funded by both international and local donors, had better welfare packages for its officers than the Nigerian military.

A source told Sahara Reporters that Nnamdi Kanu Eastern Security Network (ESN) boys are not a bunch of rookies and untrained fellows playing with guns. According to his words; “I personally know five guys from my hometown in Anambra State who left the Nigerian Army to join the Eastern Security Network (ESN). Two of them were formerly serving in Operation Lafiya Dole in Borno State, before they quit.

“We are being reliably informed that there are other soldiers, particularly of the South-East extraction, who will soon leave for other various reasons and they are likely to be recruited into the Eastern Security Network (ESN),” a military source told Sahara Reporters.

In July 2012, about 356 soldiers in the North-East and other theatres of operation had resigned from the army – some on voluntary retirement, while others cited loss of interest as their reason for disengagement.

The soldiers had written to the former army chief, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai, on July 3, 2020, under Reference code NA/COAS/001, quoting the Harmonised Terms and Conditions of Service soldiers/rating/airmen (Revised) 2017. The approval of the voluntary disengagement of the 356 soldiers was contained in a 17-page circular from General Buratai, and signed by Brigadier General T.E. Gagariga for the army chief.

Again, this January, another batch of 127 soldiers resigned from the Nigerian Army and are due to leave by May. They comprised one Master Warrant Officer, three Warrant Officers, 22 Staff Sergeants, 29 Sergeants, 64 Corporals, seven Lance Corporals, and one Private.

However, reacting to the attack Nnamdi Kanu has taken to online to share his thought via his Twitter handle to show his condolences to the fallen heroes and assured Biafrans that their death will never be forgotten.

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