Many Indigenes of Amegu Nkalaha Community in Ishielu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State have been confirmed dead following an attack by suspected herdsmen who were said to have invaded the community, killing several people, razed houses and injured many others.
Confirming the attack, the Chairman Ishielu Local Government Area, Mrs Ifeoma Peace Agwu, said that they are yet to ascertain the number of persons killed by the attackers as they are still evacuating the dead bodies and depositing them at the mortuary.
„We are taking the victim‘s bodies to the mortuary right now. I cannot talk much about it now. We will give more details later“, she said.
LEADERSHIP gathered that the attack is believed to be a reprisal attack following the killing of some cows belonging to the herdsmen in the area.
A member of the community, Prof Ndubuisi Idenyi, who confirmed the attack, took to his Facebook page to post: My Village Amegu Nkalaha was attacked today by Herdsmen.
Many have been killed and Houses razed to the ground. What a black Sunday.
In a telephone interview, Prof Idenyi said that the herdsmen attacked the community in the early hours of Sunday, killing many people and burning down houses.
“I don‘t have the number of casualties right now. We are still tracking and bringing out the dead bodies, especially those killed in the farms.“
Another source said a Pastor of a Pentecostal Church and an Evangelist in the area were among those killed in the attack.
The source, who pleaded anonymity, said the community members were not responsible for the killing of the cows.
“We did not kill their cows. They were killed by members of the Eastern Security Network (ESN) in the forest“, the source who pleaded anonymity said.
The Source further revealed that there has been tension and panic in the community following the killing of the cows. It maintained that stakeholders in the area have been making frantic efforts to ensure that the attack was not carried out.
We have been living in fear since the killing of the cows belonging to the herdsmen. Our stakeholders made several efforts to forestall the attack, but to our shock, they invaded the community early this morning and unleashed this mayhem on our people.
When contacted, the State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, DSP Joshua Ukandu, said he was unaware of the incident.
