Ben Ezechime, Enugu
The people of Eha-Amufu in Isi-Uzo Local Government Area of Enugu State have debunked reports of mass killings and arson in the community.
The indigenes spoke to journalists, who were on a fact-finding mission to the area following the recent viral videos of protest and counter-protests by groups of women over alleged recent mass killings and widespread arson in Eha-Amufu communities.
The President-General of Mgbuji Eha-Amufu, Donatus Odoh, however confirmed past mass attacks on the communities in Eha-Amufu by suspected herdsmen, but said that was some years back.
He said: “On the issue of the protest being done last week or so, on the basis of the supposed killing of 100 or 200 persons in Eha-Amufu recently as I saw in one video being circulated, none of that happened. I do not know where people are getting their information from.
“Nothing happened here in Mgbuji, Eha-Amufu two weeks ago, but there was an incident that occurred in another autonomous community in February.
“There was one Igwurube Ndubuisi Donatus that was killed, but I cannot give details of what happened to him because I was not there.
“The way you heard it was the same way I got the information,” he said.
Odoh also said that although the rape victim was from another community in Eha-Amufu, he was involved in arranging her medical treatment following government’s intervention, saying she was not dead as claimed during the protest.
“I saw the woman being driven on a bike returning from the market the other day. She was healthy,” Odoh emphasised.
Another community leader, Chief Richard Ogenyi said that but for isolated incidents, security had continued to improve since the 2022 attack through the interventions of the state and local governments.
He saI’d there were no such attacks and mass killings as portrayed by protesters on the social media recently.
“From my own view, they protested against the herders invasion of our place and their inability to farm like before because as you can see, this place you are seeing now is called Orie Ogbete or Orie Uzo Ugbo Mgbuji.
“It was a lively place before the herders drove us away in 2022.
“So, how I view what happened one or two weeks ago as an independent person is that what the women did was good because it will create awareness.
“But the truth is that there was an element of politics in the protest and I am not happy about it because they would have focused on the main issue.
“So, I am surprised to hear that many people numbering in the hundreds were killed in Eha-Amufu. After the incident of 2022, we have not witnessed such number of killings being circulated.
Meanwhile, the rape victim from Abor Eha-Amufu, Mrs. Amarachi Nnaji, while recounting her ordeal in the hands of herders in the interior farms, said that the account that a stick was inserted in her womanhood or that she was in the mortuary was false.
“They put their hands in the zip of my cloth and tore it open but I kept holding my cloth very tight until the two people dragged me into the middle of the cassava farm and subdued me there,” she recounted.
Interacting with journalists, the Council Chairman, Obeagu, admitted the existence of security challenges in the area.
He, however, strongly refuted the story of any recent killings in Eha-Amufu communities, except that of an undergraduate, noting that the state government had continued to put in place both security and infrastructural measures that had ensured that what happened in 2022 did not repeat itself.
These include the deployment of over 150 soldiers, deployment of Special Forces with Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) and gun trucks, ongoing collaboration between the state government and the Nigerian Army to construct military barracks in that border community.
He blamed bad politics and deliberate lies and misinformation for the protest.
