Owerri Turns To Ghost Town Amid Heavy Downpour

Owerri, capital of Imo State is calm with streets deserted as residents woke up to heavy downpour.

Residents stayed indoors in defiance of the call for protests, following days of sporadic shootings in Owerri.

Major streets and roads were deserted, as there were no human or vehicular movements.

LEADERSHIP saw residents at the World Bank market panic buy due to the fear that the protest would last long and prevent trading activities.

Owerri since Monday had been engulfed in shooting spree which has left not less than seven persons dead, including four policemen.

Fleeing gunmen had on Monday shot dead four policemen and a POS operator along Irete.

On Tuesday, gunmen shot dead a young man at Amawire, close to Imo State University junction and set ablaze a refuse disposal truck belonging to the Eastern Waste Management Agency.

This is even as a man was gunned down at Nwaoreubi by fleeing gunmen.

However, on Wednesday, residents witnessed heavy shootings across the state which forced residents to flee.

From Fire Service Junction, World Bank market, and Okigwe Road just by the Owerri Correctional Centre, there were heavy shootings that made people scamper for safety.

Sources told LEADERSHIP that inmates of the Correctional centre were jubilant thinking there would be a jail-break for their release.