The people of Isiadu Ibeku community in Umuahia North Council Area of Abia State said they now live in fear following threats by armed Fulani herdsmen to invade their community because they refused to allow them graze on their farm land.
The community said 15 armed men suspected to be herdsmen last weekend, were about to attack the community before a team of policemen from Abia State command was drafted to stop them.
Abia State Police Spokesman, Geoffrey Ogbonna, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, DSP, who confirmed the aborted attack, said the situation had been brought under control and that the command had positioned security personnel in the community.
For fear of being attacked, leaders of the community have directed their people not to go to their farms for now.
According to Chief Ochionye Chilaka, one of the community leaders, the residents abandoned their homes last weekend when the herdsmen shot sporadically as they tried to invade the community, but said however that no life was lost before the police intervened and averted imminent bloodshed.
Chilaka explained that the herdsmen entered the community through Ubani Ibeku and invaded their farm land. He said when he got a call that the herdsmen had entered the farms and destroying crops and burning the farm lands, he sent a delegation “to plead with them to leave our farms”.
“The herdsmen left and later returned with about 15 more herdsmen armed with AK 47 rifles”, an action he said prompted the villagers to flee and run for their lives.
The State Commissioner for Information, Mr. John Kalu, who also confirmed the incident, said he visited the community to see things for himself. According to him, the peace and conflict resolution committee set up by the state government to settle disputes between farmers and herdsmen has waded into the matter
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