Early hours of Monday, unknown gunmen numbering over ten and suspected to be herders had attacked Ebele village in Ngbo community, Ohaukwu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, killing at least four persons.
It was gathered that the attackers invaded Ebele village through Agila community, a border between Ebonyi and Benue States.
It was learnt that the attackers started shooting sporadically into the air with the intention to sack residents of the area.
An eyewitness said the attackers razed about seven houses while the villagers had fled the village to avoid being killed by the unknown gunmen suspected to be herders.
When contacted, the Commissioner for Internal Security, Border Peace and Conflict Resolution, Mr. Stanley Emagha Okoro, confirmed the attack.
Emegha said that there was confusion on whether it is herdsmen that attacked Ebele village or Agila people who had an age-long communal clashes with Ngbo community.
He revealed that soldiers who was deployed to the area stopped the attackers after engaging them in a gun battle for some hours.
According to Emegha: “Some said it is Agila people while others said it is Fulani herdsmen, but we don’t know the actual people that carried out the attack. We can’t say exactly what happened, this is what happened in the night and we heard about it this morning.
“Nobody died yet. We have called the chairman and commissioner, nobody has said 2 or 3 people died but we shall still find out.
In a swift reaction, the Commissioner of Police Ebonyi State command, CP Garba Aliyu also confirmed the attack.
He noted that officers of the command have been deployed to the area.
Garba stressed that he is yet to get more details about the invasion of the said unknown gunmen.
“We are yet to get any report from there. I have not been around and so I’m waiting for details from my officers,” he said.
