The peace of the Nnanka community, Orumba North LGA of Anambra State was abruptly disrupted yesterday (Friday, August 16) when gun-wielding men ran riot in the community, kidnapping eight persons while 12 others were severely injured.
The incident occured when gunmen stormed the venue of Ozo tittle-taking ceremony at Amakor village in Nanka community.
Emmanuel Ilo, one of the candidates for initiation into the prestigious Ozo Society said he managed to escape from the mayhem caused by the rampaging gunmen.
According to him, Mr Peter Emerie Ilo and Chike Ilo (who are brothers to the Amakor village Chairman, Barr. Obinna Ilo), and Madueke Nwafor — were being initiated into the ọzọ society at the well-attended event, before the men stormed.
“While the event was at its climax, some armed men, some of them masked, stormed the venue, in the company of some members of the community, including a former Chairman of the village, and began to ‘act’ immediately,” Emmanuel Ilo narrated.
“Without any explanation, or engagement with the organizers of the event, the men began to ‘scatter’ things in the venue, intimidate and brutalize many of the participants and the organizers, even to the point of kicking some of them in their manhood, while the armed men stood and watched, including some of them dressed in police uniform.”
Ilo further disclosed that after brutalizing the people, many of them, numbering about eight persons (including the Amakor village Chairman, Barr. Obinna Ilo, Emerie Ilo, Sam Emenike, and Chief Asina Okafor, among others), were bundled into waiting Sienna vehicles and driven to an unknown destination.
He added that some other participants, however, managed to escape and went into hiding.
He lamented that since the incident, the whereabouts of the abducted men has remained unknown, as no official contact has been made to any of their family members by the abductors.
Meanwhile, the Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Anambra State Police Command, SP Ikenga Tochukwu, said the police were yet to be informed about the incident as at the time of this report at about 3pm yesterday, urging the people to go to the nearest police station and report the matter.
Regarding the speculations that some of the gunmen were dressed in police uniform, the Police Spokesman said police don’t abduct or kidnap.
“Police don’t kidnap, and the Police don’t abduct. If they were arrested, police would have reached out to their families; they would allow them to make calls. So, we don’t operate like that,” SP Ikenga said.
