* We’ll no longer tolerate the heartless killings, says Ugwuanyi
By Christopher Isiguzo and Gideon Arinze
Suspected Fulani herdsmen in the early hours of Thursday invaded the sleepy Ndiagu Attakwu Akegbe-Ugwu community in Nkanu West local government area of Enugu state, killing a Catholic seminarian, Lazarus Okafor, and injuring four others, including a pregnant woman.
The suspected herders were said to have invaded the Ogbodo Nwarum family compound in the community about 2am and wreaked serious havoc on the entire household. While the seminarian received severe matchete cuts resulting in his immediate death, the three others, the landlord of the house, Ogbodo Nwarum, his aged mother, pregnant wife and son had their bowels ripped open by the herders who left them gasping for breath.
The governor, Hon, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, has however warned that the state would no longer tolerate the mindless killings by the suspected herdsmen, asking the security operatives to ensure that those who were involved in tne dastardly act were fished out and made to face the full weight of the law.
The traditional ruler of the community, Igwe Greg Ugwu, and the council chairman, Afam Okereke, said the attackers gained access into the building through the ceiling from where they jumped into the house and unbolted the panel door.
“We heard that the herdsmen had visited the area on Wednesday with their cows and were destroying the garden within the family compound but the elderly woman had to sound the local gong to alert the neighbourhood which made the herdsmen to flee the area warning however that they would return.
“By 2 am, they returned and made sure they attacked everybody in the house. They had initially left deep cuts on the man of the house and ripped the bowls of the women including the pregnant woman to the point that they intestines gushed out. It was at that point that the seminarian who just graduated from the seminary, Spiritan International School of Theology, Atakwu and returned the previous day from school after graduation came out from his room to find out what was happening and unfortunately, they used their matchete on him and he bled to death,” the royal father narated.
