Gunmen raid police station in Rivers

Scores of security personnel have been deployed to Ngo community in Andoni Local Council of Rivers State to arrest armed men who attacked a police station yesterday.

The Guardian gathered from sources in Ngo town, which is the headquarters of Andoni council, that unconfirmed number of suspected members of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) operating in the area invaded a police station in the early hours of yesterday and snatched some weapons.

A chief who pleaded anonymity revealed that the gunmen who have since January 2016, made life unbearable for residents of the town, stormed the police station at about 4:00am amid intense sporadic gunshots.

He explained that though the police tried to repel the attack, the invaders overwhelmed them and forced their way to the armoury where they made away with some weapons.

The Andoni caretaker committee chairman, Victor Ere, who later confirmed the attack, said the gunmen broke into the police armoury and took two AK47 assault rifles and one other weapon.

Ere disclosed that a naval gunboat has been deployed to Ngo, in addition to 150 anti-riot policemen led by an assistant commissioner of police and a commander, to arrest the gunmen.

According to him, the council has also imposed ban on restriction of movement from 7.pm to 6.am until normalcy returns to the area.

Rivers State Police Command spokesperson, Ahmad Muhammad, told the reporter that: “Our police station at Ngo was in the early hours of today (Tuesday) attacked by hoodlums. No life was lost on either sides.”

It was gathered that crisis started brewing in Ngo last Saturday when suspected militants seized the gun of an anti-riot policeman during the funeral of a prominent politician’s relation and demanded a ransom of N3 million to release the weapon.