Fulani herdsmen attack Ozu Item In Bende LGA, Abia State, scores Injured

Armed Fulani Herdsmen

The attack which came barely three weeks after a community in Arochukwu council of Abia State was invaded and attacked by Fulani herdsmen, another Abia community, Ozu Item has lost Crops worth several thousands of naira by the same herdsmen in their recent attack.

Some victims of the deadly attack were taken to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Umuahia while several others were taken to private hospitals for treatment.

At the Federal Medical Centre, one of the victims, Mr. Sunday Oru, 40, who had a fractured  right arm and chopped fingers was still wreathing in pains at the accident and emergency ward.

Oru told reporters that the herdsmen invaded their farmlands, plundered their crops including rice, cassava, okro and plantain and fed their cattle with them.

He alleged that the herdsmen “vowed that instead of being expelled from our community, they will conquer us and occupy our community.”

He explained that it was after the herdsmen invaded a rice farm on Thursday morning and youths and farmers went to expel them that  they attacked the people, inflicting injuries on them.

 “We are not civil servants. We are farmers and our crops are very important to us but the cattle are destroying everything”, Oru lamented.

However, the Abia SSG, Dr. Eme Okoro who hails from the attacked community lamented that the herdsmen have become very audacious in the attacks.

According to him, “there is no Bende community that the Fulani herdsmen have not invaded. Ozu Item has come under attack by Fulani herdsmen”.

According to Dr. Okoro, three days before the attack, he had alerted the Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of  Zone 9 Umuahia, Hosea Karma and he promised to send the state commissioner of police, Leye Oyebade, but said he wouldn’t know “if the police are  handicapped” since the herdsmen successfully launched the attacked.