A police officer was, on Friday afternoon, killed when gunmen invaded Orji, a community in Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State, south-east Nigeria.
Prince Iheme, an elder brother to Nollywood actor Osita Iheme, was also killed during a separate attack in Ubomiri, another community in the council area of the state.
The gunmen also attacked, with a machete, the Commissioner for Solid Minerals in the state, Martin Eke, according to a report by The Nation newspaper.
The hoodlums were said to have operated in Tundra Trucks and shot sporadically, forcing people to scamper for safety.
The attackers were said to be enforcing a- five-day controversial sit-at-home declared by a faction of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
“They just killed a policeman now. They opened fire on them and were shouting, ‘there is sit at home. We have asked you to go home. Stay indoors,’” an unnamed witness was quoted as saying.
“I just escaped death by a whisker now. They stopped before us and shot in the sky and asked us to go home. They didn’t shoot at me, maybe because I was in the midst of some elderly women,” another witness said.
The gunmen also shot repeatedly at Nkwo Orji Market before heading towards Okigwe Road in the state.
Mr Iheme, the elder brother to the Nollywood actor, Osita, was killed when the gunmen attacked the convoy of Akarachi Amadi, the All Progressives Congress candidate for Mbaitoli/ Ikeduru Federal Constituency.
Messrs Iheme and Eke were in one of the vehicles in the convoy when the gunmen attacked them.
While Mr Iheme was killed on the spot by the gunmen, Mr Eke was cut with a machete, witnesses said.
“Prince Iheme was killed on the spot. The commissioner who was sworn in two weeks ago was cut badly. He has just been rushed to a hospital. They were driving in a Ford vehicle,” one of the unnamed witnesses said.
