Two people suspected to be soldiers have allegedly lost their lives on Friday when they clashed with oil smugglers in Umuokwe, Aboshi, Izombe in Oguta Local Government Area of Imo State.
The incident Vanguard gathered started at about 12:30 pm, in Izombe which created tension in the area as well as neighbouring communities.
It was said that the clash claimed the life of one of the members of the communities whose name was given as Obele.
Vanguard was told the trouble was between some boys identified to be into oil theft had an encounter with the soldiers from where it allegedly resulted to burning of vehicles and houses.
Stories surrounding the incident, according to a source from the community said: “Those boys are not happy the soldiers want to stop them from doing their business of oil bunkering. So, some of them now clashed with the soldiers and killed about two of the soldiers and burn their vehicles.”
He alleged “These soldiers now called their men they came to attack the boys we started seeing burning of vehicles and houses. For now, this is what has happened and everybody is in fear many of us have jumped out from our houses and hide somewhere to avoid the attack.”
At the time of filing this report, when the Imo state Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Mike Abattam, was called he confirmed there was an incident in the area but said he was not with the details and the Police will carry out an investigation to find out what happened.”
