No
fewer than 20 persons were hacked to death in the early hours of
yesterday when suspected Fulani gunmen invaded Ancha village, in Miango
district, a community in the neighbourhood of Jos, Plateau State,
leaving at least nine others severely injured in the wake of it...
This
is even as the state’s Police Command has re-arrested and paraded,
Ifeanyichukwu Maxwell Dike, the alleged ritual killer that escaped from
police custody in Port Harcourt, River State, after raping and killing
an eight year old girl for rituals.
Parading
Dike, the outgoing state Police Commissioner, Peter Ogunyanwo said: “He
had escaped from Port Harcourt after he was arrested for killing a girl
for ritual purpose, leading to the dismissal of the Policeman that was
guarding him, but he was rearrested today in a house in Barkin Ladi,
here in Plateau State.”
Dike,
who said he travelled to Jos in a lorry after escaping from Port
Harcourt, added that he had spent three days in Plateau State before he
was re-arrested.
An
elated Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Zaki Ahmed, confirmed the
arrest of Dike and has mobilised to ensure the return of the suspect to
the state.
The
attack on Ancha village, THISDAY gathered, brewed from a week of
tension resulting from a misunderstanding between the natives and the
Fulani residing in the community over the death of a Fulani boy.
The
natives, who claimed innocence of the boy’s death, blamed it on cult
activities. They had however appealed to the Fulani for calm, promising
to investigate it. However, before the investigation could be completed,
the Fulani who perhaps became hesitant pounced on Ancha, leaving at
least 20 dead.
A villager in Ancha said the gunmen invaded the community at about 1:45 am when
his kinsmen were fast asleep, and attacked the people randomly, adding
that the attack lasted for over an hour without resistance from the
community and the security men, until the gunmen completed their mission
and disappeared into nearby hills.
Also speaking, President of Irikwe Development Association, Mr. Sunday Abdul,
who confirmed that 20 persons were killed in the raid, said the
association had condemned the killing of the Fulani boy and were already
working hard to unearth the perpetrators before the sudden reprisal.
He
said the Fulani boy was killed last week in what looked like a cult
attack. “We immediately strongly condemned the act and got some of
suspects arrested. This was further followed by a meeting with the
security agents, the Fulani and the natives for reconciliation; the
representatives in attendance assured us that they were going back to
promote peace.
“But
to our greatest surprise, some group of Fulani men swooped on Ancha
village and killed 20 persons at once; this is one too many. Let’s even
assume this is a reprisal, do you kill 20 for one?”
Meanwhile,
condemning the attack, the Police Commissioner, who placed the death
figure at 19, said they were suspected Fulani in reprisal, “who went
from house to house killing innocent people.”
He
said, the Fulani had written to the Police to complain that one of
their boys was killed, beheaded and buried in a shallow grave in the
bush, adding that the boy had ran away from home after committing a
mischief, and that after three days his headless body was found in a
nearby bush.
Ogunyanwo
said the police quickly swung into action and arrested five persons in
connection with the murder, but he did not expect anyone to take the
laws in their hands to go on reprisal after reporting to the Police and
investigations had commenced.
He
said the police recovered 11 expended shells of 7.6mm ammunition and
one live ammunition from the scene of the attack, adding that a complete
unit of Police had been dispatched to the village to forestall further
breakdown of law.
The
re-arrested undergraduate of University of Port Harcourt escaped on
Monday, August 21 after he was paraded by the police command and he had
made confessional statement to journalists on the murder of
eight-year-old Chikamso Victory for rituals threw the police in Rivers
State into confusion.
Confirming
the re-arrest of Dike, a 200-level Physics undergraduate of the
University of Port Harcourt, the Public Relations Officer of the Rivers
State Police Command, Mr. Nnamdi Omoni, stated that the command had
launched a nation-wide manhunt leading to the success.
An elated Omoni said Dike was re-arrested by the police in Barkin Ladi community in Plateau State on Thursday.
Confusion
had enveloped the Rivers State Command as a suspected ritual killer,
Dike, escaped from police detention shortly after he was taken to the
State Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Port Harcourt.
Twenty-three-year-old
Dike was arrested at Eliozu Community in Obio/Akpor Local Government
Area of Rivers on Saturday, August 19 by men of the Okporo Police
Station.
The
police had said Dike abducted one eight-year-old Chikamso Victory, his
niece, with whose parents he was residing at the same address.
Nnamdi
explained, “The little girl was abducted, defiled and killed, while her
vagina, eyes, tongue and breast were removed and put in a polythene
bag. The suspect was going to dispose off the body, when he was arrested
by the local Vigilante that suspected his movement.”
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