By Kayode Sanni-Arewa
Suspected Fulani bandits have killed a catechist of the All Saints Anglican Church, Onicha-Ebia Ikem, Isi-Uzo local government area of Enugu State, Mr. Chinaza Odumejeogu.
They also kidnapped two other victims, who are still in their custody.
The attack, it was further learnt, started on Sunday when the Fulani bandits allegedly ransacked Ikem communities.
Among those they abducted are one Mr John Ede and his daughter whom they reportedly abducted at Umueje, Ikem-Etiti on Monday morning in their farm.
The community which is the headquarters of Isi-Uzo local government area of Enugu State is currently under siege, residents who spoke to SaharaReporters on Tuesday, revealed.
According to local sources, the bandits on Sunday night, abducted one Mrs Benedicta Abonyi at her home in Ikem-Uno, behind Ikem General Hospital but she escaped following return of fire from the police, soldiers and the neighborhood watch vigilantes in the community.
The Anglican catechist was reportedly kidnapped in his farm on Monday morning with his son who escaped with bullet wound on his leg and is presently receiving treatment in a private hospital together with Mrs Abonyi who also escaped on Sunday night.
The catechist, it was gathered was not lucky as his abductors shot him to death and left him in a bush path towards Benue State where the combined forces of the police, the army and the local vigilantes picked his remains while searching the bushes and houses.
“As we speak, his corpse has been deposited at the morgue in Ikem,” one of the sources told SaharaReporters.
An eyewitness, who gave his name as Agbo Celestine narrated that a young girl who saw the motorcycle which was snatched by the bandits broke the news of the kidnappers, adding that they were four men wielding AK-47 rifles.
She was the one that told us the road they followed and that was how we recoverd the corpse of the catechist. But the woman who escaped from them on Sunday night said they were seven in number. She is the one who identified them as Fulani.”
“The woman escaped because they were shooting and we were returning with our own shooting, so the kidnappers thought we were closing in on them and they released the woman and ran away,” a security source corroborated.
Meanwhile, efforts to get the reaction of the Enugu State Police Public Relations Officer, Daniel Ndukwe were unsuccessful as he did not take his calls as at the time of filing this report.