Herdsmen Who Attacked Enugu Communities Reportedly Imported From Nasarawa

Yesterday’s attack by suspected fulani herdsmen in at Nimbo in Uzo- Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State, was reportedly carried out by herdsmen imported from Nasarawa State.

According to Vanguard report, there had been anxiety in Nimbo following reports that about 500 Fulani herdsmen were assembling to attack the area.

It was gathered that fellow Fulani herdsmen at Adani had, at the weekend, imported about 500 others from Nasarawa State to help them invade Nimbo community on the grounds that some of their cattle were missing in the area.

However, as a result of the development, stakeholders from the local government met, weekend, in Enugu to find solution to the incessant attacks, kidnap and rape by herdsmen on communities in the local government.

According to sources, Chairman of Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area, Cornell Onwubuya, had alerted Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and the state Commissioner of Police, Ekechukwu Nwodibo, of the threat.

Onwubuya was said to have further alerted other stakeholders who met leaders of the Fulani community in Enugu State on the impending attack.

Speaking at the emergency meeting held on Saturday, Onwubuya said the local leaders of the Fulani community also confirmed that there were attempts to bring in mercenaries to attack some communities in Uzo-Uwani, adding that the Fulani leaders in Enugu had complained that some of their people were killed within the axis of Nimbo and Abbi communities in the recent past.

At the meeting, Enugu State leader of the Fulani community, Alhaji Haldo Saidu Baso, said he had lived in Enugu State for over 33 years and would not be alive to witness the type of crisis they were talking about.

The Fulani leader said he would talk to his people not to take laws into their hands but to report disturbing issues to the traditional rulers of the communities.

But despite these assurances, hell was let lose as the herdsmen attacked no less than seven villages in Nimbo (Nimbo Ngwoko, Ugwuijoro, Ekwuru, Ebor, Enugu Nimbo, Umuome and Ugwuachara).

It was gathered from a native, who witnessed the gory scene that the herdsmen were armed with AK-47 rifles, and came with two buses fully loaded with arms and ammunition at about 7.13a.m.

The Fulani herdsmen had vacated the area with their cattle in the early hours of Saturday, before the attackers, who reportedly came from Nasarawa State, struck.

About 40 persons have so far been reportedly killed, while ten residential houses and a church, Christ Holy Church International, aka Odozi Obodo, were also said to have been burnt by the herdsmen just as vehicles and motorcycles were destroed and domestic animals killed.

A young man, whose name was yet to be ascertained, was burnt inside a commuter bus belonging to one Ejima, son of a prominent man popularly called ‘Are you there’ near the Christ Holy Church, Nimbo.