By David Eze, Abakaliki
Many residents of Amegu Nkalagha community in Ishielu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State have been reportedly killed following the invasion of the suspected herdsmen in the area.
Our correspondent also gathered that many houses were burnt down in the community during the attack yesterday.
Our sources including Prof Ndubuisi Idenyi attributed the incident to be a reprisal attack following the killing of some cows belonging to the herdsmen in the area.
Prof Idenyi while confirming the incident, said, 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,” he said.
Another source said a Pastor of a Pentecostal Church in the area was among those killed during the attack.
The source who spoke in the order of anonymity said the community members were not responsible for the killing of the cows.
“We did not kill their cows. The cows were killed by members of the Eastern Security Network (ESN) in the forest,” the source said.
The Chairman of Isheilu Local Government Area, Peace Agwu, also confirmed the incident, saying: “We are taking the victims’ bodies to the mortuary right now. I cannot talk much on it now. We will give more details later.”
Meanwhile, the Police in Ebonyi have confirmed 10 persons dead in the attack, according to a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), report.
The spokesman of the command, SP Joshua Ukandu, who confirmed the incident yesterday in Abakaliki said that the attack occurred morning of yesterday.
“Several houses were also burnt selectively in the area and other properties destroyed.
“Upon receipt of the information, we drafted police operatives to the area.
” We are currently investigating the incident while normalcy has returned to the area,” he said.
