Imo residents pray, hail unknown gunmen attacking police station

Residents of Orji community in Imo State were seen hailing unknown gunmen who attacked a police facility in the area on Tuesday.

The armed men had stormed the community and razed down the station which TODAY POLITICS learnt was rebuilt after being attacked earlier in the year by the arsonists.

Multimedia reports on social media showed the residents praying and hailing the attackers who did not attack civilians while carrying out the nefarious activities.

In one of the video clip circulating on social media, two armed men who attacked police operatives ignore residents who watched at a close range while they opened live rounds on the fleeing officers.

The residents, mostly men, who were not afraid of the gunshots appeared unperturbed while watching the two parties engage themselves. Most of them escorted the arsonists out of town after the attack.

In another clip, an armed gunman sitting on the roof of a Honda Accord vehicle while returning from the operation had residents praying for the safe return to his base.

While Nigerians, on social media, from the Igbo predominantly area praised the gunmen, others from other geo-political zones, warned against the support, saying that was how Boko Haram terrorist group which the country is still fighting to contain, began.

This is coming weeks after President Muhammadu Buhari approved new security measures for the restoration of peace in the troubled zone.

Despite that approval, security agencies and their facilities, including that of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have been targeted and destroyed.

The police blamed Eastern Security Network (ESN) a militia outfit of the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) as being responsible for the attack but the seccessionist group has pushed back that accusation, saying its militia operatives are in bushes across the former eastern region to root out violent herdsmen residing thereof.