Gunmen wearing military uniforms on Sunday, raided the Agba community in Ebonyi State’s Ishielu Local Government Area, killing two people.
Confirming the occurrence, the state’s Police Public Relations Officer, SP Joshua Ukandu, stated that the command was on top of the situation and that operatives had been deployed to the area.
He stated that a thorough investigation was underway to determine what caused the attack and advised everyone to be calm.
Mrs. Peace Agwu, Chairman of Ishielu Council, acknowledged the occurrence on her Facebook page, writing, “I am appalled and deeply saddened by the recent act of senseless killing that occurred in the Agba community,” but she swiftly deleted the post.
LG chairman on the telephone and via a WhatsApp message to react to the incident, she did not pick her call and did not reply to the message either as of the time of filing this report.
It was gathered that the gunmen stormed the community around 6 pm on the fateful day in military uniform, asking who the commissioner was, and when they were not well attended to, they opened fire and started shooting sporadically.
It was also gathered that in the process, two persons were killed – one Sunday Onyibe, who was the Chairman of the Tipper Union, and another indigene of the community, name withheld, who returned from abroad.
The gunmen raided a phone shop and stole all of the phones as well as the other dead person’s bike.
In an interview with our correspondent, an indigene of the hamlet known as Ben stated that the shooters concealed their faces and entered the community at 6 p.m. wearing military uniforms.
He stated that when they were unable to locate the commissioner, they began shooting sporadically, killing Sunday Onyibe in the process.
He noticed that the other person was on top of his bike, making a call, when they approached him and demanded his phone, which he refused. So they shot him and stole his bike.
He verified that the phone shop had been looted and that, despite the presence of the Chairman of the Council and the DPO Ishielu Division in the area to calm the situation, the community had not recovered from the shock.