Gunmen on Thursday attacked a police checkpoint along the Abakaliki-Enugu Highway, killing a police officer.
The gunmen also set a police patrol van ablaze.
The incident happened at Ishieke junction on the outskirts of Abakaliki town in Ebonyi State.
Residents of the area told PREMIUM TIMES that the gunmen engaged the police in a shootout during which one policeman was killed.
The police spokesperson in Ebonyi, Joshua Ukandu, confirmed the attack.
“I just got information that there was an attack at that point but I don’t have any other information,” Mr Ukandu, a deputy superintendent of police, said.
“One officer was fatally wounded and a patrol vehicle set ablaze. I will issue an official statement soon,” he told PREMIUM TIMES on the phone.
The attack came barely three weeks after four police officers and two civilians were killed in an attack on another checkpoint along a hilltop road in the city.
Although no group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, the Nigerian government has in the past blamed such attacks in south-east Nigeria on the secessionist Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB). The group wants an independent nation for the Igbos in the south-east and parts of south-south Nigeria.
IPOB also operates an armed wing, Eastern Security Network (ESN), which authorities blame for most of the attacks on security personnel in the south-east.
IPOB, whose leader Nnamdi Kanu is being tried for treason, has however denied responsibility for many of the attacks.
