Herdsmen
Fulani herdsmen grazing their cattle around Ogboli-Ohaja community in Awgu LGA of Enugu State have been ordered to leave within 48 hours.
The order was given on Tuesday by the Movement for Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) after suspected herdsmen inflicted several machete cuts on a farmer in the community.
Kenneth Ude, a 32-year-old cassava farmer, was said to be working on his farm on Monday when some herders started uprooting his cassava to feed their cattle.
This led to an altercation during which the herdsmen allegedly inflicted machete cuts on the farmer and left him for dead.
But Ude was said to have been rescued and rushed to Jideofor Medical Hospital in Awgu, where he was stabilised.
Angry young men in the community reportedly stormed the surrounding bushes in search of the assailants, while some policemen visited the hospital to take photographs of the victim.
Addressing journalists on Tuesday, Deputy National Leader of MASSOB, Chief Ikechukwu Ekwe, said any herdsman that fails to comply with the ultimatum would be fished out by members of the group.
He maintained that the group would no longer tolerate the needless killing and maiming of Igbo people in their communities by violent herdsmen.
“Enough is enough. We will no longer fold our hands and watch these people decimate us. We will fish them out wherever they may be in this community after 48 hours and handle them in own way,” the MASSOB deputy leader said.
The Enugu State Police Command has yet to confirm the incident.