ABOUT 60 gunmen, invaded Obele community in Ahoada East Local Government, Rivers State, sacking the entire place. They also abducted eight people, whose whereabouts could not be ascertained at press time.
Sunday Vanguard gathered that the men who were armed with sophisticated weapons shot sporadically directly into some houses and fleeing residents causing serious injuries, some of them critically. Houses were blown by dynamites, including the house of the chief of the town, while people fled in droves to neighbouring communities, seeking refuge, following which the community has appealed to the state government to rescue the area from the aggressors.
But confirming the incident Police PRO, Rita Inoma-Abbey, DSP, said the police commissioner went there and “discovered that it was an internal lingering problem involving a chief who collected money meant for the community. Rather than make the money available to all, the chief pocketed the largesse, causing the youths to go on the rampage. However, the chief has been arrested and is in police custody right now, while further investigation continues.”
Also, the Okrika Council chairman, Tammy Datoru, has frowned at the spate of killings in the community and has appealed to the perpetrators of the heinous crime to have a rethink for the sake of humanity and the council area. Consequently, he warned that community leaders would henceforth be apprehended for any killing or breakdown of law and order in their domain and called on the leaders to keep an ear to ground so as to nip in the bud any brewing communal strife.
Last week, leader of the Bush Boys in Okrika, Sunny Opuambe, who was a signatory to the famous Okrika peace move, was killed by unknown gunmen, fuelling speculations that he may have sabotaged the plans of some trouble makers in the area.”