The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, on Wednesday, condemned the invasion and killing of eight residents of Okpokwu-Mgbuji community, in the Isi-Uzo council area by suspected Fulani herdsmen.

It warned that Ohanaeze “can no longer tolerate the intentional decimation of our people by Fulani herdsmen or any other group for that matter; not today, tomorrow or ever.”

The Enugu command of the Nigeria Police Force has kept silent on the attack, four days after it occurred, as it neither confirm nor deny the invasion.

Among the people the assailants allegedly killed were a pregnant woman and a septuagenarian, whose daughter and son-in-law were killed two weeks earlier by the same herders.

The attackers, who were said to have invaded the community on Sunday, were said to have injured many people, kidnapped about five women and destroyed hectares of farmlands.

UGAMATV gathered that the attack was the fourth in a series of onslaught by the herdsmen since December 2020.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Daniel Ndukwe, when contacted on Wednesday, said he would call back.

As of the time of filing this report, he had yet to do so.

But the Enugu leadership of the Igbo apex body, in a statement titled, ‘The carnage in Mgbuji community, Enugu State, by Fulani herdsmen,’ described the invasion, destruction of lives and property, including farmlands, as unjustifiable.

READ ALSO kastina Emirate Bans Open Grazing In Communities

The statement, which was signed by the President and Secretary, Prof. Fred Eze, and Malachy Ochie, respectively, called on Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State to take action and protect the people in their communities.

The statement partly read, “Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Enugu State, unequivocally condemns this attack on the peaceful Mgbuji community. This deliberate mass murder by these marauding herdsmen cannot be justified by any stretch of imagination.

“We, therefore, condemn this attack in its totality as barbaric, provocative and a clear assault on the accommodative spirit of Ndi-Enugu State.

“This must stop. We, therefore, call on all the security agencies and other critical stakeholders in the state to urgently identify and bring the culprits to book.”

“We wish to warn that the peaceful disposition of the governor and indeed the people of Enugu State should not be taken for granted or interpreted as a sign of weakness, as no one has the monopoly of violence.

One of the survivors, Chinaza Akan, had told journalists that she survived the attack by a whisker, adding that the attackers came through a border community in Benue State.

She said the pregnant woman, Ogechi Ogenyi, was killed and her stomach ripped open, as they “removed the foetus, while others were killed and their throats slit.”

She said the incident happened when they were returning from a marriage ceremony.

Some community members accused the police in the state of aiding the attackers.

“The police asked our community to sign an undertaking before they could release the corpses of our community members killed in previous attacks for burial.

“Part of the undertaking was that our community should allocate land to the Fulani people, accept and live together with them whenever they return to the community.

“Our people refused to sign the undertaking because what they are demanding of us is unacceptable to us,” a resident said.