1 Dies In Enugu Communal Crisis

The protracted communal crisis in Oruku in Nkanu East local government area of Enugu State has claimed another casualty.

Sources said gunmen laid an ambush in the community yesterday and shot dead a native identified as Dennis Ike.

It was gathered that a residential building belonging to another indigene of Oruku, Okechukwu Ukeh, was also set ablaze by the gunmen said to have been sponsored by one of the opposing camps.

The deceased (Ike) was said to be riding on his motorbike from his residence for the day’s business when he was gunned down by the assailants, who also burnt his motorcycle and his corpse.

“We were woken up again this morning by the heavy sound of gunfire which forced many residents to remain indoors for several hours before security operatives arrived in the community. We came out only to see the corpse of the young man and his burnt motorcycle. The gunmen fled before the policemen arrived,” the eyewitness who pleaded anonymity stated.

Oruku and Umuode communities have been in crisis for several years but while the Enugu State Government has succeeded in settling the dispute by demarcating their boundary, which was in contention, as recommended by a Judicial Panel of Enquiry, some aggrieved members of Oruku, who were opposed to the terms of settlement with Umuode, have continued to foment trouble in their own community.

Several lives and property had been lost to the conflict as some young men believed to have been armed by some powerful personalities in Oruku have continued to attack their kinsmen who were allegedly marked for elimination for agreeing to settle the dispute with their Umuode neighbours.

The state police public relations officer, Mr. Daniel Ndukwe, could not be reached for his reactions on the incident as aid the time of filling this report but some policemen deployed to the area were seen in a video while trying to move the corpse of the deceased to the mortuary.