5killed, 7 injured as IPOB, MASSOB clash with JTF in Onitsha

FIVE persons were, yesterday, shot dead at the Niger Bridge Head, while seven others sustained varying degrees of injuries when members of the Indigenous people of Biafra, IPOB, and Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, clashed with Joint Task Force, JTF, comprising the  Army and the Police, which mounted road block at the Niger Head Bridge.
Four of the victims shot dead were members of both IPOB and MASSOB, while one person is said to be a soldier, who was grabbed by the  mob, angry with the way soldiers opened fire on the jubilating crowd that included non pro-Biafra agitators, and fell four of them before they ran for their lives, leaving the victims behind.
All the markets around the Niger Bridge Head, including the Bridge Head Market, Onitsha Patent and Propitiatory Medicine Dealers Market (Ogbo Ogwu Market) and other markets located around the bridge, including Abada Market were quickly shut down, following sporadic shooting by the military to scare the jubilant crowd away.
Meanwhile, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, yesterday,  ordered the Department of State Service, DSS, to immediately release  the detained  leader of IPOB, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu.
The court directed that Kanu, who had been in detention since October 17,  should be released “unconditionally.”
Ruling on the fundamental rights suit by Kanu, the trial judge, Justice Ademola Adeniyi, said there was no basis for the applicant to remain in custody since there was currently no charge pending against him.
The court order came barely 24 hours after an Abuja Chief Magistrate’s Court sitting at Wuse Zone 2, struck out a one-count  charge the Federal Government preferred against the IPOB leader.
According to an eye-witness at the Onitsha Head Bridge, who was coming from Asaba end of the bridge, the Biafra agitators were said to be marching on the road near the River Niger Bridge, chanting solidarity songs in jubilation for the release of Nnamdi Kanu, and were accosted by the soldiers, who ordered them to go back, and disagreements ensued before the soldiers allegedly opened fire on them.