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The Imo State police command has described the claims that gunmen bombed a well-known market at Izombe in Oguta Local Government Area to be false and malicious.
Michael Abattam, a spokesman for the State Police, highlighted this in a statement that the report was a deliberate effort to discredit the state’s improving security situation.
In the statement which was made available to The Eastern Updates, Abattam said: ‘May I, at this juncture, state the true facts surrounding the incident that actually occurred on 20/6/2022, in Izombe Central Market.
Read Also: Dozens Injured As Gunmen Bomb Market In Imo
‘It is on record that there was no bomb explosion in Izombe Central Market on 20/6/2022, and there was no record at the disposal of the Command that the traders were in anytime warned by members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) or its militia affiliate, Eastern Security Network (ESN), not to come out on Mondays for their businesses. More so, the community has always engaged in their market business without fear of molestation from anybody.
‘However, preliminary investigation conducted by the police operatives, on arrival at the market while responding to the distress on 20/6/2022, at about 1630hours, revealed that some overzealous miscreants came to the Izombe Central Market in Oguta LGA of Imo State, on a motorcycle, went to a stationed bus where the conductor was canvassing for passengers traveling to Owerri, and set it ablaze, in the name of enforcing sit-at-home order in the community, and left almost immediately after the act.
‘However, no life was lost and most of the people had left because it was the closing of the market.’ Abattam stated.
Meanwhile, the State commissioner of police, Mohammed Barde, while commending residents of the State on their support to the police, urged them to disregard the report which he added was capable of creating tension in the State.
