Imo: Many killed as gunmen block highway, raze vehicles

Imo map

Many people were killed on Thursday morning when gunmen blocked a highway in Okigwe Local Government Area of Imo State, south-east Nigeria.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that the gunmen flagged down and razed several vehicles along Okigwe-Owerri Road between Umuna and Amuro communities.

While Umuna is a community in Onuimo Local Government Area, Amuro is in Okigwe Local Government Area of the state.

Multiple sources told PREMIUM TIMES on Friday that the hoodlums killed many residents, especially when security operatives engaged the assailants in a shootout.

A resident of the area, Augustine Mbanusi, told this newspaper that over 20 vehicles, mainly tippers and trucks, were set ablaze by the attackers.

“Some soldiers and police operatives really confronted them. But up to 30 people were killed,” Mr Mbanusi said in Igbo language, pointing out that the exact casualty figure was yet to be ascertained. The resident stressed that the majority of the slain victims were those whose vehicles were razed by the hoodlums.

Meanwhile, a video clip circulating on Facebook shows several trucks in flames along the road.

Voices of sympathisers in the background of the clip suggested that some travellers were still trapped in the vehicles while the fire raged.

“People are still trapped there (in the vehicles). If we had water, we would have poured them on the vehicles (to rescue the trapped travellers),” one male voice was heard saying in Igbo language in the background of the clip.

“One of them is even dead already,” another unidentified resident observed.