Bodies floating on the Amansea River
that empties into Anambra River from
Agba Ogwudu River in Enugu State
yesterday left the people of Amansea
and their neighbours in Awka, the
Anambra State capital shocked, as
people from the communities went to
fetch water from the river.
It was learnt that after counting up to
50 bodies, the bewildered villagers
alerted their traditional ruler, Igwe
Kenneth Okonkwo, who mobilized his
cabinet for an emergency meeting after
which the state government and the
state police command were contacted.
The stench from the decomposing
bodies could be picked from about one
kilometre from the river and the
development attracted many people to
the area.
Anambra State Governor Peter Obi, who
was away from the state on official
assignment, was immediately contacted
and he directed members of the state
executive council to move to the spot
with a view to finding out the true
situation of things.
Most of the state commissioners and
local government chairmen from some
local government areas, as well as other
top government officials, who were at
the scene posed questions to the
communities’ leaders to find out if
anybody was missing in their areas. The
indigenes so far said no one was
missing in their communities.
The state commissioner for local
government, Mrs Azuka Enemuo, who
led the government delegation to the
area, described the development as
terrible.
“Since our arrival, we have counted
about 14 dead bodies floating on this
river and we may not have seen the last.
We were duly informed by the security
agencies and we believe they will carry
out investigations to tell us actually what
transpired.
“We have already contacted our
neighbouring Enugu State government
to find out if the bodies came from that
state. The state government must get to
the root of this matter,” Enemuo said.
Speaking on the incident, Igwe Kenneth
Okonkwo said, apart from the mystery
posed by the floating bodies, the worry
of his people was that their main source
of water supply may have been polluted.
He said the river is the only source of
water for the five communities of
Amansea, Ebenebe, Ugbenu, Ugbene and
Oba-Ofemili and the development had
caused a lot of discomfort to his people.
The Enugu State Police Commissioner, Mr
Musa Daura, has assured the people of
the communities affected and the state
government that his command would
probe the mystery surrounding the
bodies, while he added when visiting
the scene yesterday, that he would join
hands with his Anambra State
counterpart to investigate the source of
the corpses.
According to him, the avalanche of dead
bodies remained a mystery because he
had not heard of any communal clash
whether in Enugu or Anambra where
many people were killed.

igbo kwanu!