- Safiu Kehinde
It was a black Sunday for residents of Amegu Nkalaha community at Ishielu Local Government Area of Ebonyi state as invasion by suspected Fulani herdsmen left many dead and several injured.
The suspected herders reportedly burned houses and destroyed properties valued at millions of naira in the community.
Confirming the incident, the state police command spokesperson, Joshua Ukandu, disclosed that 10 bodies have been recovered after the attack.
Ukandu stated that the police are currently investigating the incident, and normalcy has returned to the area.
“Several houses were also burnt selectively in the area, and other properties destroyed. Upon receipt of the information, we drafted police operatives to the area.
“We are currently investigating the incident while normalcy has returned to the area,” the PPRO stated.
“We also recovered 10 corpses from the area. At the moment, our personnel are there, and normalcy is returning to the area,” Ukandu added.
However, the actual number of casualties remained unascertained as the attack was carried out across different location in the community including farm and a local church.
The attackers, according to eyewitnesses, were armed with cutlasses and guns.
Reacting, the Chairperson of Ishielu LGA, Mrs. Ifeoma Agwu, confirmed that authorities are still evacuating bodies and assessing the full extent of the casualties.
The Amegu Nkahala Community leader, Godwin Ogbu, also stated in a telephone conversation with Channels TV on Monday, that the total number of casualties cannot be ascertained at the moment as some people are still missing in the community.
While disclosing that the number of casualties recovered so far are over 12, Ogbu claimed that the massacre is reprisal attack over the recent killing of the herdsmen cattle by some unidentified individuals.
“Just like I said earlier, these people came from different angles and some people were killed inside the farms where they were working. So, we cannot accurately confirm the exact numbers know but I know the dead bodies are more than twelve.
“It could be a reprisal attack because human beings are involved this time around and not cows. The people who killed the cows are unidentified and the villagers are not involved in the killing of the cows. ” He said.