Troops of the Nigerian Army on Operation UDO KA conducted a raid on an Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) camp located in Igboro Forest in Abia State on Saturday.
According to a statement posted on X by the NA on Sunday, the raid was conducted in order to arrest the killers of five soldiers at Obikabia junction in Aba last week.
The statement read, “In order to apprehend the perpetrators of the attack on own troops (three out of those killed are from the SE) at Aba last week as well as to recover arms and ammunition from the Indigeneous People of Biafra and its affiliate Eastern Security Network terrorist group, troops of Operation UDO KA conducted another successful clearance/raid operations to the IPOB/ESN Camp in Igboro Forest in Arochukwu LGA of Abia State yesterday.”
The statement disclosed that during the operation, the troops subdued the IPOB group in a firefight, killing six members of the group.
It added, “During the intelligence-led operation, troops encountered Improvised Explosive Devices along the axis of advance, and one soldier sustained a minor injury from the fragment.
“The terrorists’ feeble firefight was adequately subdued with superior firepower, which led to the neutralisation of six members of the criminal terrorist group while others escaped into adjoining bushes with varying degrees of gunshot wounds as blood stains were seen along their escape routes.”
The soldiers were also reported to have recovered weapons, including three locally fabricated rocket-propelled grenade launchers, two locally fabricated artillery guns with tripod and bombs.
Additionally, recovered Dane guns, Biafran flags, and vehicles were reported to have been burnt and the camp itself was destroyed.
In the statement, the Joint Task Force Operation UDO KA urged Abia residents to continue providing security forces with credible and timely information to aid in eliminating criminals in the state and wider southeastern region.
Meanwhile, Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, increased the N25 million bounty placed on the killers of the soldiers in Aba to N30 million.
Otti added that the state government had also started working with the security agencies to ensure that such incidents do not happen again in the state