Tension in Nkwelle Ezunnaka over invasion by armed robbers

www.odogwublog.com reports that one person was report­edly killed while scores sustained various degrees of injury when gun­men suspected to be youths of a neighbouring community, Osile Ogbunike, invaded a housing estate, ‘New City Ato­ji Estate, Nkwelle Ezunnaka, Oyi local government area of Anambra state, at about 2.30 pm last Wednesday.

Eye witness account said that the gunmen, numbering more than 40, invaded the estate, wielding all manner of dangerous weapons and attacking the estate vigilante operatives who tried to resist them. They were reported to have shot dead one of the vig­ilante members identified as Mr. Atta Friday, shot another member, Mr Uche Kalu, on the leg and, later, indiscriminately which hit and injured scores with residents scampering in various directions for safety.
When newsmen visited the estate over the weekend, Chief Uche Okeke and Mr Christo­pher Magbo, chairman and vice chairman respectively, of the landlords association of the estate, disclosed that they had been suffering attacks of this nature on frequent basis stating that their ordeal start­ed way back 2016 when one of their vigilante commanders was kidnapped and killed without the trace of his corpse up till today, stating that their efforts for the case to be inves­tigated had been thwarted.
Explaining further, they stated that after the incident, another of their vigilante com­mander was lured out, drugged and killed, just the same pat­tern like the 2016 case, noting that preliminary investigation on the two killings indicted the people of Osile village who were in the habit of harassing them with thugs suspected to be cult boys.
While appealing to the Anambra state government and police for protection, the duo said that the matter, if swept under the carpet, would endanger their lives as they were living in fear even as they said that the body of their dead vigilante commander had been deposited in a morgue by the police while other injured persons had been admitted in a hospital for treatment.
Conforming the incident, the divisional police officer, DPO, ’33’ police division, CSP Janet Mbanefo, said her office had waded into the matter but the state police public relations of­ficer (PPRO), Haruna Moham­med, when contacted, said he was yet to be briefed about the case. Mr. Mohammed however promised that the state police command would do a thorough job to fish out the perpetrators of the dastardly act