Herdsmen kidnap Royal father, wife, shoot travelers in Enugu community

Barely three days after Reverend Fr. Paul Offu was gruesomely murdered in the Awgu area of Enugu State, another indigene of Enugu state, name withheld, has narrowly escaped an attack by suspected Fulani herdsmen within the same Local government Area where the Reverend Father was murdered in cold blood.

He paints a shocking and mind-numbing picture of what had transpired:

“Yesterday, around 5:30 Pm as I drove from Isuochi to Enugu, the unthinkable happened. This was just before UNTH after Awgu junction.

“Suddenly, this hooded Person ( dressed in Fulani Regalia) jumped out of the bush in front of me and started shooting at my Car. Before I could make anything out of it another three appeared a bit in front and bullets started flying everywhere. I have been hearing about Fulani Herdsmen but what I saw yesterday is better imagined than experienced.

About one Kilometer from there, just before UNTH and NNPC Mega Station was a Military Checkpoint. I heaved a sigh of relief and slowed down. I told the Army guy what was going on just behind their Post. He casually told me that they were aware.. that the driver in front of me just told them. I asked him why he was still standing there without making any move to save the vehicles behind, and he just looked at me blankly and waved me on.

“By now, my entire dashboard was full of red lights. The temperature of my Car hit the highest point on the meter. I slowly drove down to the front of NNPC opposite UNTH and pulled the Car out of the road.

It was then it dawned on me what happened. There were over 20 bullet holes in my front fender. Most of these bullets hit directly at my Radiator and other things in front of the engine. The tires which they were after, didn’t get a scratch. There were also two bullet holes on the passenger side of the Car. And few others around the Booth. Let God be praised !

“But in all these, not one of those bullets touched my body and that of Prince, the boy with me. At the Military Checkpoint, we pleaded with the army people to alert others not to go in that direction.

“Praise God with me. Nigeria is surrounded. Nowhere is safe. This thing is far more serious. The Government and people of Nigeria should better treat this as an emergency. It’s beyond Politics. Anyone can be a victim,” he narrated.

Coming on the heels of this harrowing experience, and happening almost simultaneously, a royal father from Awgu Local Government Area was kidnapped along side his wife.

The Enugu State Police Command on Monday confirmed the abduction of the traditional ruler of Obom-Agbogugu, Awgu Local Government Area, Igwe Sunday Orji and his wife by unidentified gunmen, reports Punch News

The abductors are said to have contacted the royal family, demanding a N50 million ransom.

Igwe Orji was reportedly kidnapped with his wife around Ogbaku before Agbogwugwu junction along Enugu-Port-Harcourt expressway while they were returning from a Thanksgiving Mass organised by the Bishop of Awgu Catholic Diocese, Most Rev. Ifeanyi Okoye for his aged mother, Ezinne Ekedimma Okoye, held at St. John’s Pro-Cathedral Church, Owelli Awgu on Sunday around 5.00 PM.

The traditional ruler’s vehicle was badly damaged with gun shots in the bid by the marauding terrorists to forcefully stop their mobility. HRH Igwe Sunday Orji and his wife were however forced out of the vehicle and taken away as captives through a bush path to an unknown destination, reports Family Writers.

Enugu State is the de facto political capital of the Eastern region. Eastern region of Nigeria is predominantly Christian with about 99.2% Christian population. Like the predominantly Christian North Central region (Middle Belt) of Nigeria, the Fulani herdsmen have relentlessly waged a war of attrition on predominantly Christian communities across the country, giving unquestionable credence to the allegations that the intent of the Islamic killer herdsmen is Islamization and land dispossession.

It is worth noting that the Nigerian government under president Muhammadu Buhari has yet to find a solution to these killings. If anything, the impunity with which the herdsmen carry out their attacks smacks of presidential conspiracy and hypocrisy in the brutal gamble with human lives, ongoing right now in Nigeria.