Sad tales from Nimbo

THE people of Nimbo, a quiet village located in Uzo Uwani Local Government area of Enu­gu State, are still gripped by fear, after rampaging Fulani herds­men raided the quiet village and killed innocent persons.

As if that was not enough, the herdsmen who the villagers said have been terrorizing them for some time, destroyed the Catho­lic Church and burnt the vicar­age, which also serves at the of­ficial residence of the presiding Reverend Father.

At the end of the attack, the herdsmen left behind sorrow, tears and blood, as the land is yet to recover from the attack, which was described as very deadly.

Commercial activities in the serene village which borders, Anambra, Kogi and Benue states, and which people are pre­dominantly farmers have been completely brought to a halt.

The village, apart from be­ing deserted, has also been abandoned by commercial ve­hicle operators from Kogi and Benue states who usually ply the route to Onitsha to do their businesses. Villagers who were lucky to have escaped from the herdsmen, guns and machetes are now taking refuge in places perceived to be safe.

Uzo Uwani Local Govern­ment area is said to be the lo­cal government with the largest landmass in the Enugu state. Aside destroying their farmland, the herdsmen allegedly raped their women in order to stamp their superiority over the harm­less villagers.

The reaction that greeted the attacks was overwhelm­ing and as a result, President Muhamadu Buhari, for the first time, made an open declaration on the activities of the herdsmen across the country. Some public commentators had accused the President of “not talking” about the herdsmen’s rampage espe­cially the Monday killings in Uzo Uwani council area.

As a first step, the President ordered both the Chief of De­fence Staff, Gen Gabriel Olon­ishakin and the Inspector Gen­eral of Police, Solomon Arase to visit the area to ascertain the level of destruction done there.

The IGP, who was on tour of the North east to see the level of police deployment to liberated cities and towns in the zone at the time of the incident, aban­doned the tour after visiting only Maiduguri, and headed to Nimbo community.

The journey to Nimbo, by the IGP, and his entourage from the Akanu Ibiam international air­port took about two and a half hours drive, driving through several towns and villages in Nsukka, to get to the village.

Arase made a brief stop over at Nkpunator Kkpologu, where the proposed divisional police headquarters and police bar­racks are located for an inspec­tion. He met with the Senator representing Enugu North sena­torial zone, Chukwuka Utazi.

At the end of the inspection which did not last more than five minutes, the entourage including this reporter drove straight to the village which was totally deserted. At the village square, the villagers gathered to receive the IGP, and his entourage comprising the Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of the zone and the Enugu state commis­sioner of police among other principal staff officers from the police head quarters.

How it all happened

Senator Utazi, after introduc­ing the IGP to the people began to narrate what actually happened. He was interrupted by the local government chairman, who took over the narration.

However, the villagers got angry when they felt that the lo­cal government chairman was not telling the IGP and his team the whole truth. This forced the spokesman of the community, Dr George Ojogwu, to take over.

Narrating their ordeal, the doctor, told the visitors how the herdsmen had attacked a neigh­boring town, Abi, where they killed a number of people and burnt down houses sometime ago, an attack that was reported to the police. After the attack on Abi, he said the herdsmen went ahead to attack another village, Anuka, before attacking theirs.

According to him, there have been a lingering problem be­tween the herders and the people over their farmland. His words “They chased us when we went to our farms and they allowed their cattle to damage our plants. They raped our women and beat them up. Sometimes they would catch the man and the wife and rape her in the presence of her husband. They have been doing all manner of bad things to us including kidnapping our people and demanding huge sums of money for their release.

We must commend the police for their effort because if not for them, it would have been worse.

“We were aware that they were going to attack us and we reported to the police who deployed their men here. But as soon as the po­licemen left, they came and at­tacked us in the night. Up till this moment, I cannot tell you why they left, because we told them about the need for them to bring in new people before they left but they re­fused and left.

“Immediately they left, the in­cident happened. It was only the area commander and his men that came to our rescue and engaged the herdsmen before they left.

We are not saying that the police did not do its job, what we are say­ing is that if they had heeded all the security reports we have been pass­ing to them, the herdsmen would not have attacked us.

“We had over twenty of our people killed. These Fulani people have been attacking us on a regular basis. We have continued to bury our people killed by these Fulani men year-in, year-out. I am very happy today that the IGP, is here to witness what is happening because we have been crying to govern­ment for help. Our people don’t go to farm again.

“Now, there is another revelation about this whole attack because one policeman Chukwu, and each time he came with an alert about Fulani coming to attack, they will strike. The Chukwu, is a corporal serving at Agbani division. This same Chukwu, came with the herdsmen and they started shooting our young men who went to the farm and we fought back and they ran away. We don’t know why an Igbo man, would fight on the side of the Fulani to kill his people and when we tried to ask him, he said we should shut up our mouth.”

Gloom in the village

As expected, the mood in the village was mournful as every­one wore long faces and lament­ing over the incident. Apart from the very few young men that came out to welcome the IGP, no woman was sighted as they had been taken into protective custody by their kinsmen to prevent them from be­ing raped.

The market in the village had no commercial activities going on. Shops and other business prem­ises were shut to mourn the dead. Schools, healthcare centers were not left out in the closure as they were closed down for fear of being attacked.

The villagers say they are still in shock over the whole incident and cannot tell for now, when things will return to normal since most of their relatives have been killed and others on admission in hospitals across the state.

The people who are still trauma­tized cannot tell where their next meal would come from since they no longer go to the farm. Parents have hurriedly relocated their chil­dren from the villages to their rela­tions in the cities where they may remain to continue with their edu­cation until total peace is restored.

Tales of bereaved families

Parents who lost their children in the raid are still lamenting over the loss of their loved ones and they are yet to come to terms with the reality. Some of them who spoke to Saturday Sun, told of how the herdsmen mutilated the bodies of their loved ones, which made it very difficult for them to identify the bodies save for their clothes and special birth marks.

One of the villagers who found it very difficult to speak said “I was only able to identify the body of my brother because of his cloth because the way they cut his body was nothing but barbaric. I can only imagine the pains he passed through before he finally gave up the ghost. The condition in which we found the bodies of our relatives was so bad that we had to bury them immediately, there was no way we could deposit such bodies in the mortuary because even the mortuary people would not ac­cept those bodies. I just thank God that we survive it because it was a very terrible incident that only those who were here would understand what we passed through and saw.”

Policeman in trouble

On the alleged involvement of one police corporal Chukwu, who was alleged to have played a role in leading the attackers to the vil­lage as narrated by the spokesman for the community, the IGP im­mediately ordered the arrest and detention of the policeman.

He directed the Assistant In­spector General of Police (AIG), and the commissioner of police of the state to effect the arrest of the corporal.

He assured the people that if found guilty, the police corporal would not only be dismissed from the police but also made to face the full wrath of the law.

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