Military arrests 486 suspected Boko Haram members in Abia

According to a report by Guardian, not less than 486 suspected Boko
Haram members including eight women were arrested by the military
personnel of the 144 battalion of the Nigerian Army with base at Asa
in Ukwa West council of Abia State. Full report below...

Abia State Information Commissioner, Chief Eze Chikamnayo, who took
some reporters to the military camp yesterday to see the suspects said
they were arrested around 3:00 a.m. on Sunday along Enugu-Aba-Port
Harcourt Expressway at Arongwa area called Imo Gate, which is a
boundary between Abia and Rivers states.

He said that the suspects whose ages were from 15 years were traveling
on 35 buses from undisclosed northern states to the South South. He
said that they claimed to be going to search for jobs, adding that two
of the buses later escaped. Continue...

The commissioner spoke in the presence of the Battalion Commander, Lt.
Colonel Rasheed Omolori, whose only comment was that the report had
already been sent to his headquarter.

It was also disclosed that somebody whose name was not made known, had
come to secure the release of the suspects but was arrested and
detained.

Reacting to the incident, the state Police Public Relations Officer (
PPRO), Mr. Geoffery Ogbonna, said that the matter was a military
one and had not been reported to the police command. He said that when
he contacted the Army Public Relations Officer in the state whose name
he did not mention, he told him (PPRO) that he was not yet aware of
the matter.

And following the bomb found on the premises and inside the Living
Faith Church (a.k.a Winners Chapel), Port Harcourt Road, Owerri,
capital city of Imo State, the Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha,
in conjunction with security chiefs yesterday launched what he called
"Operation Know Your Neighbour."

The occasion was attended by a cross section of stakeholders in the
state amid heavy security.

The meeting resolved as follows:

". Hotels in the state should install security cameras and on daily
basis always forward the list of their guests to the Director of SSS.

". Trailers bringing food items from the North would no longer be
allowed to come into the state at night but only in the day, and the
food items would be off-loaded at a designated place off the state
capital.

". Residents in the state must also be careful with broken bottles,
cans, leather bags, parked tankers and vehicles around their homes,
public places and public buildings.

". Traditional rulers in the state were directed to summon emergency
meetings of their various communities to take stock of strange faces
living with them.

". Uncompleted buildings in the cities in the state and environs
without security guards will be taken over by the government because
criminals use them as hideouts.

". Lands left fallow for several years and not used for any economic
or gainful purpose but taken over by criminals will be seized by the
government

". Smoking of Indian hemp was also banned.

". A meeting of all non-indigenes in the state has also been fixed."