Some suspected herdsmen on Thursday attacked Ndiagu Attakwu Community of Akegbe-Ugwu in Nkanu West Local Government Area of Enugu State, killed one person and injured four others.
The Commissioner of Police in the South-East state, Mr Emmanuel Ojukwu, who visited the community to assess the situation, said the attack took place in the early hours of the day.
Ojukwu commiserated with the families of the victims, the community and urged them to be calm.
“I sympathise with the family of the victims as well as the entire community over the incident,” he said.
He urged them not to panic as the police command in partnership with relevant stakeholders and the State Government had stepped into the incident.
Ojukwu said that anti-riot policemen, counter terrorism personnel and operatives of the homicide section of the State Criminal and Investigation Department had been deployed to the area to prevent any breakdown of law and order.
The commissioner also visited the injured persons at the Mother of Christ Hospital and Enugu State University of Science and Technology Teaching Hospital, Parklane.
He said that full scale investigations into the incident had commenced.
Meanwhile, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi has expressed shock at the murder of a seminarian in Ndiagu Attakwu Akegbe community in Nkanu West Local Government Area by suspected herdsmen.
Ugwuanyi, who rushed to the community on receipt of the report of the invasion of the community in the early hours of Thursday, said the government would no longer tolerate such barbaric attack on his people.
“This morning, I received the report of an attack by suspected herdsmen on Attakwu community during which a seminarian, Mr Lazarus Nwankwo, was killed and four others injured.
“Even though the police are still conducting investigations into the matter, I hasten to condemn this act as the government cannot tolerate the wanton destruction of lives anywhere in the state under any guise,” he said.
Ugwuanyi said that he had summoned a meeting with the leadership of the herdsmen and security agencies to review the situation and determine the appropriate actions to be taken.
“It is unfortunate that this incident is coming just days after the commission of inquiry into the killing at Nimbo submitted an interim report and is about to conclude its assignment.
“I wish to express our sympathies to the families of the deceased and assure them that the government would do everything to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to book,” he said.
Ugwuanyi said that the government would continue to take adequate measures to ensure the protection of lives and property.
Chairman of Attakwu Autonomous Community, Chief Ndubuisi Ogbodo said that the suspected herdsmen struck the community out of no justified provocation.
Ogbodo said that one Lazarus Nwankwo from Imo, a final year student of Spiritan International School of Theology, was killed in the attack.
He said that a certain woman from the family of one Mr Ogbodo Nwarum had on Wednesday tried to stop some cattle from grazing on her farm located at the back of her house.
“When the woman saw the cattle grazing on her farm, she sounded a gong which scared the cattle away from the premises.
“The herdsmen got furious and challenged her on why she scared their cattle and threatened to come back for her.
“The herdsmen later came back in the early hours of Thursday and invaded their compound during which the pregnant woman and three other members of her household were attacked with machete,” he said.
He said that the seminarian, who was a tenant in the compound, heard the shouts of the woman and her household and darted out to see what was happening but got killed.
Ogbodo said that the other four victims got deadly machete cuts and were critically ill and were receiving treatment in two hospitals.
Residents of the community who spoke on condition of anonymity blamed their ordeal on their traditional ruler who allegedly collected money from the herdsmen and gave them a portion of their land to settle.
They alleged that the traditional ruler was even given a contract by the herdsmen to grade the route leading to their settlement.
Reacting, the traditional ruler of the community, Chief Greg Ugwu, said that he knew nothing of the settlement of the herdsmen in the community.
Ugwu said that the cattle breeders were already in the community before he was crowned as the traditional ruler, adding that he had no business with them.
The governor drove into the forest where the herdsmen lived but could not meet anyone as the entire settlement had been deserted.
