Lagos – Less than a week before presidential elections in Nigeria, gunmen killed five police officers in two separate attacks in southeast Anambra state, police said on Monday.
More than 90 million people are registered to vote on Saturday to elect a successor to President Muhammadu Buhari who is stepping down after two terms in office.
The country is facing multiple security threats including a separatist agitation in the southeast but also jihadist insurgents in the northeast and kidnapping gangs in the northwest.
On Monday, suspected separatists “attacked Awada police station in Idemilli North… using Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and automatic firearms,” said police spokesman Ikenga Tochukwu.
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“Four police operatives paid the supreme price while a section of the station, one police patrol vehicle and three exhibit vehicles parked in the premises were set ablaze,” he added in a statement.
He said that three of the gunmen were also “fatally wounded.”
On Sunday, police said it had foiled an attack at the Nkwelle-Ezunaka police station in Oyi district.
“Armed with guns, IEDs and petrol bombs,” Tochukwu said the gunmen “started shooting indiscriminately to gain entrance to the station and were fiercely engaged and resisted.”
“One police operative attached to the station was fatally wounded,” he said, and six gunmen were “neutralised.”
On Saturday, gunmen had already attacked a police station in the Ogidi area of the state, killing three officers.
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Police blame the frequent assaults on the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) group and its armed wing the Eastern Security Network (ESN), who deny the accusations.
There have also been unclaimed attacks on offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission in the region.
Despite the violence, the electoral body has said that the election will go ahead as planned.
Security forces plan to deploy around 400 000 personnel for the presidential and parliamentary ballots taking place later in March.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Pixabay
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