According to the Vanguard, there’s great tension in Delta state,precisely at the administrative center of the Oshimili North Local Government Area LGA, after a group of unknown attackers shot and murdered a youngster, who appears to be a Fulani and concealed his remains underneath a shallow grave in Akwukwu-Igbo.
As a matter of fact,the escaping attackers, who were speaking the Igbo language, fired gunshots at a group of herdsmen as well as their cows when they infiltrated a forest near the Abakeleke Camp in Akwuwku- Igbo.
However,the gunshots hit and killed three cows, while others ran helter-skelter within the forest as there are worries and heated controversies that the cows that got away could cause further damage in the forest in their efforts to elude danger.
Although,the Deputy Superintendent of Police DSP Bright Edafe, the correspondent for the Delta State Police Command, verified the onslaught to newsmen on Wednesday,26th October 2022, disclosing that the perpetrators of the attack are still at large.
He continued saying,“the assailants are on the run, we are on their trail. It is confirmed that the corpse of a herder was unearthed. The family has taken the corpse for Islamic burial”.
Reacting to the attack,Obi David Azuka, the king of the Akwukwu Igbo Kingdom, issued a plea to the state’s security operatives , urging them to do everything in their capacity to find the criminals and bring them to justice,adding that,“I want peace in my domain”.
The only explanation the gunmen provided was that they don’t want to see the herdsmen around the vicinity, but they did not provide a rationale for what they did.
Furthermore,a community source made mention that as soon as some group of local vigilantes called the Anioma Security Watch in Akwukwu-Igbo within the area were notified about the attack, they reportedly went on lookout of the deceased Fulani minor who was between 15 and 16 years of age.
“The vigilante combed the area before they sighted the shallow grave they buried the boy after the unpremeditated murder”,q the source divulged.
Meanwhile,the vigilantes brought the remains of the deceased to the Akwukwu-Igbo Police Headquarter, where his relations came to claim his body in order for them to bury him in accordance with Islamic rituals.
Conclusively, all inhabitants of the region have made it clear that they did not give permission or hire anybody to enter the jungle to chase the herdsmen away as the gruesome death of the minor has purportedly annoyed his indigenes,who might try to retaliate anytime soon.