Five police officers have been declared missing in Rivers State.
The police officers were declared missing during an ambush by some gunmen in Okujagu community, Okrika Local Government Area of Rivers State.
In a statement sent to NAIJ.com, the Rivers command police spokesperson, Ahmad Muhammad, said that the officers alongside their colleagues were involved in an ambush on Wednesday, May 25, 2016.
“The policemen went to Okujagu community on a routine police inquiry when they were ambushed by unknown gunmen before they could disembark from the boat that ferried them, they were bombarded with a barrage of heavy gunfire which forced them to scamper for cover and by the time the firing ended,” Muhammad said.
He added that six police officers including two inspectors and four other rank and file were earlier unaccounted for.
“But a day after Inspector Aferuan Imoukhuede who was among the missing policemen was rescued,” he said.
The spokesperson said various operations by the Rivers State command is under way to ensure the rescue of the remaining missing officers.
He said that 53 suspects have also been arrested in connection with the incident in Okrika and are currently being interrogated.
“The commissioner of police has set up a high powered investigative panel headed by the deputy commissioner of police, Investigation Department to unravel the circumstances surrounding the entire incident,” he said.
Recently, family members of an official of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, Howell Obia, had raised alarm over the disappearance of the son who was redeployed to Port Harcourt in Rivers State.
The family in a petition to the commissioner of police in Edo State said that they were yet to see Obia since his redeployment to Rivers State.
They also said that the NSCDC official has not replied text messages or returned unanswered calls placed to his mobile phone number since his redeployment.
