Soldiers from the Asa Military Base of 14 Brigade, Ohafia Barracks, Abia State, have arrested 486 suspected insurgents including eight girls. The arrest was made the same day bombs were uncovered and defused in a church in neighbouring Imo State.
The suspected insurgents were said to be going to Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital in search of work.
The suspects were arrested at about 2 am when their vehicles were intercepted by soldiers between Arungwa Junction on the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway and Imo Gate, the Abia State and Rivers State boundary.
They were said to be moving in a convoy of 35 Hummer buses when they were intercepted. However, two of the buses were said to have escaped arrest.
According to Abia State Commissioner for Information, Eze Chikamnayo, who briefed journalists, yesterday at the military base in Asa, Ukwa West Local Government Area of the state, where they were being detained, the suspects are aged from 16 years upwards.
Chikamnayo who was accompanied during the briefing by the Commander in-charge of the battalion, Lt. Col. Rasheed Omolori, who also confirmed the arrest, said that the suspects allegedly came from Kano, Taraba and Jigawa states.
They were said to have claimed that they were going to Port Harcourt in search of work.
Lt. Col. Omolori, who however declined further comments on the arrest, said that a report had been forwarded to Army Headquarters, Abuja.
The commissioner, however, said that further investigation would assist in unraveling the true mission of the suspects but insisted that “the movement was suspicious”.
Chikamnayo commended the Army and other security agencies in the state for their vigilance and urged them not to relent.
Some of the vehicles which have been impounded by the Army authorities have the number plates: Jigawa RNG 98XA; Osun RLG 176XA; Kano AF 411 DAL; Lagos BDG 487 XK; Abuja EP 86 ABC and Bauchi ZAK 48 XA, among others.
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