Enugu — Perhaps, the Monday, April 27 invasion of the Ukpabi Nimbo community in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State by suspected armed herdsmen would have been averted if security operatives in the state had properly beefed up security when they received a report on the imminent attack.

There was an allegation that the community was successfully attacked because unscrupulous elements leaked intelligent information to the invaders. The attackers were said to have stormed the community from the surrounding bush, hacking their victims to death with daggers, knives, small axes and A-K 47 rifles.


Nimbo is made up of seven villages - Enugu Nimbo, Nimbo Ngwoko, Ugwuijoro, Ebor, Ekwuru, Umuome and Ugwuachara - all of them were attacked brutally.

Right now, nobody, not even the security agencies or villagers can give the accurate figure of casualties. [size=14pt]This is because more corpses are being recovered from the bush and some victims who were receiving treatment have died[/size]. For instance, Akogwu Utazi, a relative of Senator Chuka Utazi, representing Enugu North Senatorial Zone, was said to have died at the Bishop Shanahan Memorial Hospital, Nsukka on Wednesday. Also, it is not clear whether Mr. Patrick Eze, a youth corps member and one of the three victims referred to the National Orthopedic Hospital, Enugu (NOHE) would survive.

When Daily Trust on Sunday visited the hospital, it was learnt that Eze's condition had worsened on Thursday. "We're not sure he will last till tomorrow (Friday), and there's no way we can allow you to enter there," a nurse told our reporter at the NOHE.

One of the indigenes of the community, Chioma Ajogwu, whose brother, Celestine, is one of the lucky surviving victims currently receiving treatment at the hospital, said: "For over a week and some days, we had police security. We also had all the youth in our community and its neighbourhood. Every day, they (security men) would keep guard in the community and its surroundings.

[size=14pt]"But immediately the security men left the community about 6am on Monday to prepare for another night, the invaders came. They came from the bush, dividing themselves into several groups," she said[/size].

Celestine received life-threatening bullet and machete injuries on his neck, mouth, hands and back. Thinking that he had died, his attackers abandoned him.

Root cause of the invasion, Daily Trust on Sunday was informed that the relationship between Ukpabi Nimbo and its herdsmen guests was severed in 2015, when the hosts demanded that the herdsmen must leave their land. They accused them of unleashing destruction on their farms as well as raping their women. Last year, a fight between the herdsmen and Nimbo people reportedly led to the loss of lives on both sides. At last, the herdsmen were said to have angrily left the community, but some of them stayed back inside the bush.

"When the herdsmen left, our people rejoiced, thinking that the matter was over. We did not know that few of the herdsmen were still in the bush. Later, they wrote a letter to our Igwe (traditional ruler), telling him that they would come back for war, whether he liked it or not. They did not state the actual date of the proposed war," Ajogwu recalled. According to her, the herdsmen had vowed to avenge the death of their brothers during last year's fracas.


To prevent the imminent war, upon receiving the threat letter from the herdsmen, the traditional ruler of Nimbo, Igwe John Akor, reportedly held a meeting with the leadership of the herdsmen and some of their notable kinsmen. He wanted to find a means of averting the attack. The response he got from the leadership of the herdsmen and their kinsmen was that nothing could be done to prevent the attack, adding that they should prepare for war. He reportedly alerted the state and local governments.

Following the development, stakeholders from the local government met in Enugu to seek a lasting solution to the alleged attacks, kidnap and rape of women by the suspected herdsmen in communities within the council area.

The chairman of the Transition Committee of Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area, Cornell Onwubuya, also alerted Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and the commissioner of police, Enugu State command, Nwodibo Ekechukwu, of the herdsmen's threat.

Onwubuya said the local leaders of the Fulani community also confirmed that there were attempts to bring in mercenaries to invade some Uzo-Uwani communities. He recalled that some Fulani leaders in Enugu had complained that some of their people were killed within Nimbo and Abbi communities last year.

During the meeting held in the Enugu Government House, the traditional leader of Fulani community in Enugu State, Alhaji Haldo Saidu Baso, said he had lived in Enugu State for over 33 years and would not be alive to witness the kind of crisis they were talking about. Baso assured that he would talk to his people not to take laws into their hands but to always report disturbing issues to traditional rulers of the communities.

Daily Trust on Sunday was reliably informed by an indigene of the community that the invading attackers were armed with AK-47 assault rifles, bayonets, small axes and knives. They wore black cloths. They also tied black cloths on their foreheads.

A villager and one of the victims of the attack, Kingsley Ezugwu, who is also a former councillor for Nimbo Ward 2, spoke in his hospital bed at Nsukka, saying: "I was coming out from the house when I heard the community bell ring. I went with a friend to know what the bell was about, only to see about 40 Fulani herdsmen, armed with sophisticated guns and machetes. They pursued us, killed my friend and shot at me several times but missed. They later caught me and used machetes on me until I fainted." He said they abandoned him, thinking that he was dead. Ezugwu said he managed to crawl out of the spot until another villager took him to the hospital.

Our correspondent learnt that a team of security agents, made up of the army, police and the Nigeria Security Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), has been deployed to the troubled area, which was deserted following the invasion.

Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, who visited the area on Tuesday, not only wept openly, he also asked the people to remain calm. He declared two days of fasting and prayer for God's intervention in the matter, and donated N5million to the community as a palliative measure.

Ugwuanyi also told the people that when he got a security report on Sunday concerning the imminent attack on the community, he immediately summoned an emergency meeting of the State Security Council. He said the council met on Sunday night till the early hours of Monday, shortly before the herdsmen struck. He regretted that the sad incident eventually occurred despite all the assurances by security operatives.

The Inspector-General of Police, Solomon Arase, who visited the community on Wednesday, April 26, vowed that the police would fish out the perpetrators of the attack and prosecute them accordingly. He ordered the arrest of one Corporal Chukwu, attached to Adani Police Division over an alleged collaboration with the attackers during the invasion.

Many stakeholders of the community and others believe that the unfortunate attack would have been nipped in the bud if security was properly beefed up by those concerned.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201605020877.html

Mynd44
lalasticala
onenaira5
superstar1
scholes5
omenka

Onenaira5

From your IDP camp, can you please provide a full detail of what is going on onground? Let us know how much we can donate to the helpless. O ma se o. Ahh these attacks are well-planned!

ikarm17:
Onenaira5

From your IDP camp, can you please provide a full detail of what is going on onground? Let us know how much we can donate to the helpless. O ma se o. Ahh these attacks are well-planned!

Is this a joke to you?
Were you raised with parents?
As you were reading of the slaughter and hacking of humans your little wee wee tighten up?
Your really sick dude...

They wrote you a letter telling you to prepare for war. You called them for peace talk and they insisted on the war only for you to mumuishly relax to be killed.

That king deserves to be slapped by the gods. How I wish it was Aguleri or Umuleri King in Anambra that they wrote that war letter to. The herdsmen would have been united with their virgins in hell by now.

Bitterleafsoup:

Is this a joke to you?
Were you raised with parents?
As you were reading of the slaughter and hacking of humans your little wee wee tighten up?
Your really sick dude...

The sick ones are the ones that rejoiced and called others cowards when agatu/mile 12 were attacked.
This is beyond joking. Lives were lost and a possible attack is coming.
Instead of focusing on kissing Saraki's ass or blaming Yorubas online, tell your people to secure themselves.
Judging by the stories, these were PLANNED attacks, unlike your typical chestbeating.

SirJeffry:
They wrote you a letter telling you to prepare for war. You called them for peace talk and they insisted on the war only for you to mumuishly relax to be killed.

That king deserves to be slapped by the gods. How I wish it was Aguleri or Umuleri King in Anambra that they wrote that war letter to. The herdsmen would have been united with their virgins in hell by now.

Some are strong for battle, others must consistently wave the white flag.

ikarm17:


The sick ones are the ones that rejoiced and called others cowards when agatu/mile 12 were attacked.
This is beyond joking. Lives were lost and a possible attack is coming.
Instead of focusing on kissing Saraki's ass or blaming Yorubas online, tell your people to secure themselves.
Judging by the stories, these were PLANNED attacks, unlike your typical chestbeating.

Brose Brose hold on now. Don't let another person take you out of your true self. The attacks looked well plan as you have investigated. Now wettin you go do with that news? That should let us know that this is getting serious, we have to direct our energy to stoping these terrorist. They are a new brand of terrorist the 2nd from the North. The way it is going now we have a common enemy a problem the administration is ignoring and we have to take serious.

Bitterleafsoup:
Brose Brose hold on now. Don't let another person take you out of your true self. The attacks looked well plan as you have investigated. Now wettin you go do with that news? That should let us know that this is getting serious, we have to direct our energy to stoping these terrorist. They are a new brand of terrorist the 2nd from the North. The way it is going now we have a common enemy a problem the administration is ignoring and we have to take serious.

What will I do with the news? I posted it.
What you plan to do with the news is up to you.
If Enugu people were smart, they'll stay on guard. How can Fulani herdsmen attack, then come back and attack after the police had left? They're no longer herdsmen, they're terrorists and they have a stake on Enugu.

ikarm17:


What will I do with the news? I posted it.
What you plan to do with the news is up to you.
If Enugu people were smart, they'll stay on guard. How can Fulani herdsmen attack, then come back and attack after the police had left? They're no longer herdsmen, they're terrorists and they have a stake on Enugu.

Ok? You've proven your point so we should call them Fulani Terrorist isn't it?

SirJeffry:
They wrote you a letter telling you to prepare for war. You called them for peace talk and they insisted on the war only for you to mumuishly relax to be killed.

That king deserves to be slapped by the gods. How I wish it was Aguleri or Umuleri King in Anambra that they wrote that war letter to. The herdsmen would have been united with their virgins in hell by now.

they knew what happened to the innocent victims..it was a well planned attack . no resistance, no video, no phone call ,no backup from neighboring villages in 21century igboland? everybody pretended they were sleeping especially when they had a foreknowledge of the attack... who is fooling who?

ikarm17:


Some are strong for battle, others must consistently wave the white flag.

so where did the strong ones go after being informed of the impending attack? does commonsense support strong folks abandoning or defending their people during hostilities? so all the youths couldnt form vigilante including Corporal Chukwu ?
all the security men disappeared without shift only for terrorists to come unleash violence by 7 am daytime hmmm reminding one of BH style , nobody could trace the ' herdsmen' to the kogi border where Gov Ugwuanyi claimed they reinforced nor could anybody call Kogi police or security agencies to alert them of the approaching killers abi na inside Enugu dem pass?; they wore black shirts ,so how do u know they were fulanis? Corporal Chukwu is a Fulani too?, abegii we ain't fools....

Too much bloodshed. I will return to air my view on this and maybe offer a solution.

Babacele:
so where did the strong ones go after being informed of the impending attack? does commonsense support strong folks abandoning or defending their people during hostilities? so all the youths couldnt form vigilante including Corporal Chukwu ? they wore black shirts ,so how do u know they were fulanis? Corporal Chukwu is a Fulani too, abegii we ain't fools....

The strong ones are online blaming Yorubas.

ikarm17:


The strong ones are online blaming Yorubas.

the blood of d innocent dey dem hands all either online or offline as long as they give tacit support to this killings by their pretension, omissions or commission .

This is just too bad.

Babacele:
they knew what happened to the innocent victims..it was a well planned attack . no resistance, no video, no phone call ,no backup from neighboring villages in 21century igboland? everybody pretended they were sleeping especially when they had a foreknowledge of the attack... who is fooling who?

I don't get you. Are you insinuating that some villagers connived with the herdsmen to kill their fellow villagers? Please explain further, I'm confused

Bitterleafsoup:
Brose Brose hold on now. Don't let another person take you out of your true self. The attacks looked well plan as you have investigated. Now wettin you go do with that news? That should let us know that this is getting serious, we have to direct our energy to stoping these terrorist. They are a new brand of terrorist the 2nd from the North. The way it is going now we have a common enemy a problem the administration is ignoring and we have to take serious.

This is where we should direct our thoughts... we may not be wrong if we assume Fulani value their cows more than their own lives, even more than indians that have made cows their gods and worship them , so i can understand the carnage as reprisal attacks for cows killed by the community.....

But Unprovoked & unwarranted attacks? Nah, Unseen hands and minds are guiding this. ..

SirJeffry:
I don't get you. Are you insinuating that some villagers connived with the herdsmen to kill their fellow villagers? Please explain further, I'm confused

read the story again and tell the role of Corporal Chukwu. thanks.

SirJeffry:
I don't get you. Are you insinuating that some villagers connived with the herdsmen to kill their fellow villagers? Please explain further, I'm confused

read the story again and tell us the role of Corporal Chukwu. thanks.

wat a lawless country,how can an idiotic colanut chewing morafucker be threatening a whole village, no call police but army for this cold blood murderers....kingReefer hate jungle justice but this calls for drastic measures.