Three persons were confirmed dead by doctors in Aba, while six others were hospitalised with various degrees of bullet wounds after NDLEA, Police and Army personnel raided a drug hotspot at Ariaria.
Akimgbade said his men, who took part in the operation, had gone to the police to record their statements, adding that the command was willing to find out what happened in order to stop future occurrences.
Akingbade said: “We do not know who killed the man whose body was reportedly taken to the police station. That is why the investigation is ongoing.
“We are collaborating with the police and the officers that went for the operation so that we can find out when exactly the person was shot and with what type of gun and which type of bullet.”
He said he delayed commenting on the saga because he needed to get clearance from the command’s head office in Abuja.
He said: “We had in information that one Martin Luther King, a former BAKASSI member, a known drug baron in Aba, was among the people that attacked our officers last year at Isiala-Ngwa, where three of our members were seriously injured, to the extent that they had to be flown abroad through the intervention of the former governor, Theodore Orji.
“When we got this information that he is in a place called Black Kingdom in Ariaria, our office mobilised to seize the drug that they claimed he brought to Black Kingdom, and also effect his arrest.”
Akingbade stated that the officers told him that Martin Luther King brought out a gun and started firing skyward as they moved towards him, causing the release of the arrested drug dealers.
He said that in the ensuing disorder, his men managed to move the exhibits to the vehicle and left the venue for their office within 30 minutes of the crisis.
He said that his men had returned to the office before they heard the reported killing of one person in the area, stressing that his agency had, since inception, been law-abiding.
Tags
Crime