BIAFRA : How ESN’s attack on Orlu market led to orgy of violence

 

IPOB says it formed ESN to protect rural Igbo communities but others accuse the armed group of armed robbery, murder of unarmed civilians, fatal assaults on the police and theft of weapons.

On January 25, 2021, many Hausa traders in a market in Orlu, Imo State, barely had a moment to process what they were seeing as vehicles stopped with a screech, masked gunmen jumped off and started shooting directly at them. The gunmen later set the market on fire.

“We just saw about four vehicles with correct, correct guns, driving wrong-way towards where we were,” said Ahmadu Ali, a leader in the market situated just behind the town’s stadium.

“They just opened fire pa-pa-pa-pa; there was no stop.”

Mr Ali said three people were shot dead and one Salisu Sala was burnt. He said other traders escaped through the stadium road, many of them with gunshot injuries.

He named those killed in the unprovoked attack as Usman Ali, Mohammed Rabiu and Nura Muhammadu.

Except for Nura, who was from Nigeria’s northwestern Sokoto State, the other dead victims were from Niger Republic, although of Hausa ethnic stock.

PREMIUM TIMES obtained horrific photographs showing the victims, lifeless and drenched in blood, and their cleaned remains, prepared for burial.

Also, we received still and motion pictures of the razed market. Mr Ali explained that the market was razed as the fire from Mr Sala’s body caught inflammable materials in his shop and quickly spread to other shops in the market.

 

Burnt Hausa community market in Orlu, Imo State.

“They were quite a number,” said Golden Marvin, who said he witnessed the attack. Mr Marvin identified the gunmen as members of a militia group, Eastern Security Network (ESN), because of the “inscriptions on their vehicles” and their clothing.