‘How residents deserted Enugu community over herdsmen attacks’

A community leader in Obinagu Obofia Ugwuleshi, in Awgu local council, Enugu State, Chief Onyemelu Okeke has narrated how the inhabitants deserted the area for over three years because of the fear of attacks by herdsmen.

Okeke, who is the traditional prime minister of the community, disclosed this during a fact-finding mission in the community by members of the commission of inquiry into the mass killing in Nimbo.

He told the panel that their villages had been uninhabited because of the fear of herdsmen.

He said that the community, which is at Enugu and Abia State border along Enugu/Port Harcourt expressway was constantly attacked by suspected herdsmen who grazed there.

He also said that their women became victims of rape, residents were killed and farmlands destroyed by cattle, adding that they had to relocate to the hinterland for safety of their lives.

Okeke said that they were helpless and appealed to the government to drive out the herdsmen who had taken possession of the deserted community so that they can return there.

He revealed that the people are predominantly peasant farmers and are currently facing difficulties in their adopted communities.

The community leader said that their market, which he described as the only public infrastructure in the community had closed down as there was no one to maintain it.

Also speaking, Mrs. Patricia Chukwu informed members of the panel how her husband, Patrick was murdered by people suspected to be herdsmen in the community.

Chukwu said that the deceased was killed at midnight, adding that the incident made her household abandon their home and they relocated to a nearby community where they now live as tenants.

“We were all sleeping when the herdsmen invaded our home. They told my husband to bring all the money he had, but he told them that there was no money with him.

“They killed him with machete. My children and I witnessed the murder and the trauma of the incident and the fear that they may come back made us run away,” she said.