Five people have been declared dead by the Anambra police command following Sunday's shooting at a nightclub in Oba, in the Idemili South Local Government Area (LGA) of the state.
Aderemi Adeoye, the state commissioner of police, made this statement on Tuesday in Awka during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
According to Adeoye, the casualties included a bouncer, two fun seekers, and two members of a local vigilante group.
He said that criminals had also kidnapped the club's owner.
Adeoye pledged to find those responsible for the event, calling it unfortunate.
“We got a distress call at about 2 a.m., Monday, the DPO Oba Division led police officers and members of the local vigilance group to the scene, but the attackers had already fled the scene.
“The police Rapid Response Squad from Awkuzu was on patrol in the area from 6 p.m., to midnight before moving to other parts of the state and the incident happened after the team left the area.
“Five persons were killed, they include two vigilance group members, one bouncer and two clubbers.
”The owner of the hotel was abducted in the process,” he said.
Although investigations to identify the attackers had begun, Adeoye stated that the police had not yet made any arrests in relation to the incident.
“We have seen a pattern; the gang was responsible for a similar incident where the victim’s body was dismembered about two weeks ago in Ihiala.
“We have an idea of the axis they are operating from, we are going to crack them down, no arrest has been made and investigation is ongoing.
“Oba has always been a flashpoint because of the thriving nightlife, lots of hotels and strategically located, so we intend to deploy additional assets and personnel to that axis, especially this yuletide, to make sure criminals do not make life miserable for people,” he said.
‘’The decay in values is not strange to the people but unfortunately, we have to live with the consequences, this is one of the reasons why the public enlightenment agencies were created.
“Community leaders, leaders should step up the campaign against immorality, unnecessary show of affluence and criminality.
“Investigation has shown that most of the money you see on display in night clubs are not legitimately earned, most are proceeds of crime, so we all have work to do, a law enforcement agency, we will continue to do our part.’’
