Nigerian police have raided a bomb factory and arrested one person in the country's southeast, where separatist violence is on the rise, a spokesman said on Saturday.
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The operation was carried out in Uba Umuaka, Imo state, on Wednesday, state police spokesman Michael Abattam said in a statement.
According to him, the police have been informed of a hiding place in which the Independence Movement for the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (Ipob), declared illegal by Lagos, and its military wing, the Eastern Security Network (ESN), "
manufacture improvised explosives used in attacks on police stations and government facilities in the state
”.
Read alsoNigeria: 3 dead and 19 seriously injured in a bomb attack
“
During the operation, a certain Simeon Onigbo, 50, was arrested.
During interrogation, the suspect confessed to being the builder of most of the improvised explosive devices used in attacks on police stations in and out of the state
,” according to the same source.
On the spot, the police discovered a homemade bomb, 58 steel parts for cannons, two chisels, a hammer, bags of potassium nitrate, more than 13 kg of sulphur, 18 kg of dry sand, 4.5 kg of red sand, 13.6 kg of gunpowder and half a bag of coal, Abattam said.
“
The investigation is ongoing.
The suspect has made helpful statements and named out-of-state members of his gang who are his clients
,” the spokesperson added.
Particularly sensitive subject
Southeast Nigeria is experiencing an increase in pro-independence violence.
More than 130 members of the security forces have been killed there since last year, according to local media reports.
The authorities have accused the Ipob, which campaigns for the creation of an independent state for the Igbo ethnic group, or the ESN.
The movement rejected any responsibility for the violence.
Last month, gunmen attacked two police stations with dynamite in Imo state.
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Separatist movements in Nigeria have been a particularly sensitive subject since the former Biafra, an underprivileged region in the south-east mainly populated by the Igbo community, was the scene of a bloody civil war between 1967 and 1970, after a unilateral declaration of independence by insurgent Igbo army officers.
After the death of more than a million people, mainly Igbos, from famine, disease and in the fighting, and the failure of the rebellion, the "
Republic of Biafra
" had ended up reintegrating into Nigeria, a country near of 200 million inhabitants regularly shaken by inter-community tensions.