At least four workers of Lee Engineering Company operating in Assa Community in Ohaji/Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State and a police officer attached to the oil company were killed in the early hours of Monday, in Imo State.
The Imo State Police Command Public Relations Officer, CSP Michael Abatham confirmed the incident to the Tribune Online in a telephone chat, on Monday afternoon.
He said that the deceased was found dead after gunmen ambushed them, on Monday morning, in the Assa Community in the Ohaji/Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State.
The PPRO said that no arrest had been made yet but the investigation was already on to unravel the circumstances surrounding the attack.
This is even as the Indigenous People of Biafrans (IPOB) has postponed the Monday 16th 2021 sit-at-home order in the South East region of Nigeria.
Tribune Online gathered that the oil workers were on transit to their oil plant in the Assa Community when the hoodlums opened fire on them.
Four workers out of their number died on the spot, while others sustained gunshot injuries.
A village source told our correspondent that the oil plant in the community was under construction by the oil company.
The national president of Congress of Ohaji Youths, Emmanuel Chinonye Ugorji, also confirmed the attack to Tribune Online in Owerri.
He said that some community leaders and security agents, including himself, had visited the scene.
The Youth President called on the government to beef up security in the area, adding that the gunmen had been terrorising the area in recent times.
He said: “The first attack by this group was on Oil Serve company and second was the kidnapping of the Cluster Development Board Chairman, Godswill Uzomba, whose whereabouts remained unknown since three months now and followed by burning of ZEROC equipment at Watersmith industrial park by a known criminal gang.”
The President-General of the Assa Autonomous Community, Bartholomew Obodo, also confirmed the attack to our correspondent in Owerri.
He called on the federal government to come to the rescue of his people.
Credit: Nigeria Tribune