BY NATIONAL PANEL REPORTERS
The Executive Chairman of Ohaukwu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, Barrister Clement Odah, has called for the spirit of peaceful coexistence to reign among the council people and their neighbours.
Odah made the call on Wednesday while briefing journalists at the Ohaukwu Council Headquarters, Ezzamgbo after an enlarged stakeholders' security meeting involving the local government functionaries, community leaders and the heads of the security agencies in the area.
Our sources disclosed that over 21 people were reported to have been beheaded while not less than 12 persons declared missing following the recent attack on the Ngbo Community in Ohaukwu Local Government Areas by suspected warlords from Ezza Effium in Ebonyi State and Ezza Benue State.
According to the nameless sources, it was about 12 noon in the afternoon at Ukwogba in Ohaukwu Local Government Areas of Ebonyi State, that an unknown gunman wearing Army uniforms stormed the community and opened fire on the residents which claimed many lives of innocent people within the areas.
The alleged warlords were, according to our sources, speaking Ezza native language and threatening to kill the entire Ngbo community people if they keep on housing Effium people in the area.
The sources further said that the alleged warriors also set ablaze the Government Secondary School Agu-Tachi, Ukwugba Community School, and Ali Okemo Community School among other valuables.
The attack did not stop on the first blastoff, as it went on repeatedly, increasing the scores of lives and valuables destroyed in the area.
Though the Police Public Relations Officer, Ebonyi State Command, SP Chris Anyanwu, said police have not gotten statistics of the death record yet, the Council Chairman, Barr Clement Odah and other stakeholders described the incident as a very painful one.
Odah noted that the state government under the watch of Governor David Umahi has met with the affected people, in its efforts to calm down the security situation in the council area especially the recent development at Ukwuagba Ngbo.
The Ohaukwu LG Boss assured his administration's commitment to ensure permanent peace returns to the crisis zones, saying that after the meeting he would visit again the affected communities to provide the residents with palliatives and as well to know the level of destruction following the attack.
Some stakeholders from the area including Pastor Paul Chidiebere Chris - the Chairman of the Justice and Peace Committee in Ohaukwu, Michael Okpoto - the Traditional Ruler of Ekwashi Community, and the Ebubeagu Commandant of the Council Area, Leonard Igwe, among others interacted with journalists after the meeting and described the incident as an unfortunate one.
They called all and sundry, especially the relevant authorities of Umuekumenyi extraction in Ebonyi state and beyond, to intervene to return permanent peace in the area, saying if an urgent intervention was not applied, the crisis would escalate to record more disaster.
