Buses burnt, police officers killed during IPOB's sit-at-home Monday in Southeast

As businesses, transporters and shop owners counted the costs after most Igbos were forced to sit at home on Monday, August 9, by the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB), a couple of lives may also have been lost as well on the day, in the region.

ChannelsTV reports that four policemen were killed as gunmen attacked the Police Area Command in Nnewi, Anambra State.

"The attack which occurred on Monday was alleged to have been carried out by suspected members of IPOB," the TV station adds.

Spokesperson for the Anambra Police Command, Tochukwu Ikenga, said the police battled the assailants and eventually warded them off.

The gun duel with the assailants who arrived the police facility in about seven vehicles, lasted for more than an hour.

In a related development, some three buses belonging to a transportation company were reportedly burnt by gunmen in Nkwogwu, Aboh Mbaise LGA of Imo State on Monday.

It is yet unclear if there were any casualties from the attack.

Pulse has learnt that armed militants patrolled the southeast on Monday to enforce a sit-at-home directive issued to force the federal government to release separatist Nnamdi Kanu, who has been in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS) since June.

The stay-at-home order was largely obeyed across the southeast as businesses closed shop, marketplaces locked entrances and schools remained shut on a day most students were due to sit for their NECO examinations.

The southeast has become increasingly more restive and volatile in recent times, with police stations and electoral offices getting burnt, long before Kanu's re-arrest.