19 feared killed as hoodlums attack Anambra community

Police confirm nine fatalities

There is tension in Igbariam community, Oyi Local Council of Anambra State, as about 19 persons were feared killed by yet-to-be-identified hoodlums yesterday.

A source in the area said, on condition of anonymity, that the hoodlums invaded a building in the community around 2a.m. and killed 12 women, seven men and an undisclosed number of children, adding that they also killed 25 cows while 19 others were injured.

But the South East Chairman of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Alhaji Gidado Sidikki, said that gunmen attacked the Modiyam Umaru camp, in Awkuzu.

Sidikki told newsmen in Awka that Fulani men were killed and 23 cows slaughtered, as the gunmen shot sporadically in the area. He said: “I don’t really know what we have done to these people. Everyday they continue killing our people and their cows.

“Since we came to the South East, we have been living in peace with our host communities before the monsters came. Honestly, I’m tired of the whole situation.”

The MACBAN boss appealed to his members not to react but allow the police and other security operatives to unravel the circumstances surrounding the ungodly attacks.

But the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Ikenganya Tochukwu, said that only nine persons were killed in the attack. The statement added that the Commissioner of Police, Monday Kuryas, ordered the immediate deployment of the command’s operational and intelligence assets to identify and apprehend the unknown armed men, who violently attacked Ukpomachi Village, Awkuzu in Oyi, in the early hours of April 26, 2021.

He said: “A crack team of police operatives of the command, led by an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), has visited the scene for on-the-spot assessment of the incident.

“The assailants, said to be armed with machetes and other dangerous weapons, invaded the village in their numbers and attacked the residents, resulting in the death of nine persons (whose identities are yet unknown), injuries on some others as well as destruction of buildings and livestock.”

The PPRO further said that the CP had assured the community of the command’s resolve to get to the root of the incident, while calling on them to remain calm.

The Guardian gathered that as the gunmen shot sporadically in the area, some students of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (COOU) scampered for safety.