By Chinyere Nwaneri
The Igbo National Council (INC) has described the successful operation of the Owerri attack on the police and correctional centre as a failure of security intelligence.
They made the comment in a Press release issued and signed off by its president, Chilos Godsent while reacting on the attack. The group expressed surprise that the gunmen could beat all the security check points around the area of attack unmolested.
Excerpts of the statements read:
“The Igbo National Council (INC) Worldwide have noted with heavy heart the unprovoked wanton coordinated attacks on the federal correctional center and Police force headquarters Owerri by yet unidentified gunmen on the wee hours of Monday 5th April 2021.
“The most terrifying aspect of the devilish attack was the release of over one thousand eight hundred and forty four prison inmates into the society.
“While we condemn the attacks in its totality, we also urge the Federal Government to detribalize the process of recruitment, training and promotion of the members of the Nigeria security operatives.
“We are very surprise that that number of gunmen can move into the heart of Owerri capital city with the number of vehicles they came in with and yet could not be spotted by the police, noting that there are several police check points within the government house Roundabout in Owerri. This is a complete failure of intelligence on the side of the security agencies.
“Noting that the IPOB and ESN has also denied carrying out the attack, we therefore urge the Federal Government to carry out a thorough forensic investigation of the ongoing militarization South East Zone of Nigeria. We suspect that the attack has Political under tune.
“Finally, we demand for the immediate demotion, arrest and trial of all the head of security agencies in Imo State for suspected conspiracy and lack of capacity to effectively protect Nigerians of South East extraction.”
