Not less than eleven persons have been reportedly killed in Inikiri Effium, Ohaukwu local government area of Ebonyi state by suspected warlords.
Effium and Ezza Effium people in the local government, have been at ‘war’ since January 2021 with many lives lost and properties worth billions of Naira destroyed.
Many souls have been destroyed including that of the Five NELAND Engineers engaged by the state government for a road project in the community who were abducted by the warlords and beheaded when the war took another dimension.
Some soldiers sent to the community for peace keeping were also abducted and have not been seen till today.
Governor Francis Nwifuru set up panel to investigate the crisis with a view to resolving it.
But children between 2 and 12 years and a pregnant woman were massacred by warlords who invaded Inikiri in the community.
The deceased were among the eleven persons that were killed by the warlords on Thursday afternoon.
A resident of the area, Pastor Freeman Nwonu, told blueprint that the warlords invaded the community at about 2:pm and shot sporadically till 6:pm without soldiers stationed in the area for peace keeping stopping them.
He noted that a health center built for the community by international organization, AMURT foundation and about 30 residential houses were razed by the warlords during the invasion.
“Yesterday being 1st May, 2024, Uffium warlords attacked our people from 2 pm till 6pm and they killed eleven persons and the buildings they burnt there were about 30 buildings including a hospital that was built for us by AMURT foundation, an international organization.
” The most annoying thing is that soldiers that were deployed there for peace keeping didn’t do anything to stop them. They were there till the end of the whole thing and even denied that nothing happened in our community that yesterday”, he stated.
A stakeholder of the community who did not want his name in print said the incident happened very close to his house and lamented the massacre.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Joshua Ukandu said he has not received any information on the incident.
