A pregnant woman and two others were killed by gunmen enforcing Simon Ekpa’s five-day sit-at-home order in Enugu State.
It was gathered that the yet-to-be-identified pregnant woman was killed by a stray bullet on Saturday morning at New Market during a gun duel between the hoodlums and policemen.
According to PUNCH, sources said that a bullet hit the pregnant woman who came for early morning market where she hid in a store.
In a viral video, two other yet-to-be identified victims were seen lying lifeless in front of the Enugu University Teaching Hospital, Parklane in a pool of blood.
The short video clip also shows a white police patrol vehicle on fire.
The victims were said to have also been shot by the hoodlums.
A senior police officer, who confirmed the attack, however, noted that no policeman was killed, adding that a manhunt had been launched for the hoodlums, PUNCH reports.
It was gathered that the hoodlums, numbering over 10, stormed the New Market area as early as 6am, probably to shut down the market but they were confronted by policemen patrolling the market area to reassure traders of their safety.
The gunmen were reported to have engaged the policemen in a gun duel and eventually succeeded in setting ablaze the police patrol vehicle while the operatives fled.
The aforementioned publication reported that an eyewitness, Mike Ezeh, said, “I saw a group of boys around 6am this morning shouting at traders coming to market to go home. They were shouting, ‘Don’t you know there’s sit-at-home? Why are you disobeying it?’
“Shortly, I saw a police patrol vehicle coming and immediately, they engaged them in a shootout. I left my goods and ran to safety. After the shooting stopped I came out and saw they had set ablaze the police patrol vehicle parked in front of Colliery Hospital.”
The state police spokesman, DSP Daniel Ndukwe, in a statement said the State Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Ammani, ordered Area Commanders, Divisional Police Officers and Commanders of all the Tactical/Operational Units of the Command to ensure maximum deployment of all the command’s intelligence and operational resources under their watch, to effectively patrol and fish out miscreant.
The CP described the sit-at-home as an illegitimate order and enjoined residents and law-abiding citizens “to remain vigilant, go about their lawful businesses and resist succumbing to the antics of the miscreants, including the spread of tension-causing fake news.”
According to the statement, normalcy had since been restored at the New Market area following the deployment of “a crack team of police operatives to hunt down the armed hoodlums, who shot sporadically and breached public peace in the area.”