Gunmen have reportedly invaded Eha-Amufu town in the Isi-Uzo local government area of Enugu State, killing a soldier and stealing guns. Easterner gathered that the incident occurred on Thursday morning.
It was learnt that the gunmen who arrived at the community in a Lexus SUV went straight to the military checkpoint along Eha-Amufu – Ikem Road, close to the Federal College of Education there and shot the commander. They also burnt their patrol vehicle.
“After killing the commander, other soldiers who could not withstand the firepower of the hoodlums fled. They now set ablaze their patrol vehicle. The equally ransacked their base, carted away their patrol motorcycle, guns and some other valuables,” a local source told Easterner on Friday morning.
According to the source, the gunmen arrived between 7:30 am and 8 am.
“They didn’t attack any other place in this community, they just went straight to the military checkpoint and sacked the soldiers. The attack lasted for more than two hours. When they finished and were escaping, they attacked a trailer truck at Umuhu-Eha-Amufu Community that tried to block them,” the source added.
Easterner further gathered that the gunmen also attacked another checkpoint manned by operatives of the Enugu State Community Policing, otherwise known as Neighbourhood Watch at Agbaishi along Eha-Amufu – Nkalagu Road, and reportedly took away their guns. Another source told Easterner that when the gunmen got to the checkpoint manned by the community policing operatives of the state, they didn’t kill anyone but commanded the operatives to lie down. It was learnt that the gunmen also questioned community security operatives.
“One of the neighbourhood watch operatives told us that they asked them to lie down and started questioning them. They asked them whether they are of the South East Ebubeagu Security outfit. When they said no, that they are community policing, then their leader told them that they were not the target,” the source said.
Other sources told Easterner that after the attack in Eha-Amufu, the gunmen drove to Nkalagu junction in Ebonyi State and shot indiscriminately for about 20 minutes, causing panic. They later escaped through the Abakaliki highway, Easterner learnt. Meanwhile, there is palpable tension in Eha-Amufu town for fear of military attack on the town and nearby communities as the military is known for carrying out such attacks in communities where soldiers are killed. Efforts to get the reaction of the police and military were not successful. The spokesperson for the state police command, DSP Daniel Ndukwe and the Director of Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu did not answer their calls nor reply to text messages sent to them to get more clarification.
