Posted by By Sun News Publishing on
Horror visited Umudi community recently when a leader, Chief Colenus Orji and two other prominent members of the community, in Umunnochi Local Government Area of Abia State, were butchered by youths. Their bodies were doused in fuel and set ablaze.
Horror visited Umudi community recently when a leader, Chief Colenus Orji and two other prominent members of the community, in Umunnochi Local Government Area of Abia State, were butchered by youths. Their bodies were doused in fuel and set ablaze.
Orji, a 60-year-old timber dealer and secretary of Timbers Dealers Association, was butchered in the early hours of January 5, 2007. His son, Victor, who escaped from their captors after watching his father cut down into a small heap, told Daily Sun that the memory of the incident will remain a nightmare to him for the rest of his life.
Victor, who said that he has become a refugee with his nine siblings said that the killers of his father are still on the prowl.
'Their intention is to wipe us out because my father reported their evil activities to the police. The offence of my father and the three other men killed and for which we would have been wiped off, was reporting this group to the police. They go by the name Lopanta Youth Movement and have been killing people on daily basis.
'They are feared by all and are used by their sponsors as agents of vengeance to their perceived enemies. If they kill anybody and his relation reports to the police, they come after that person at night and kill the person. Killing has become the order of the day since this group came into existence. They have sent many people to early graves, without the knowledge of the police and government. They said that my father and about eight other people they penciled down for killing reported them to the police, and for that reason he must die.
'They were invited by the police and on getting there, they agreed that they would not kill anybody again. When the police wanted to detain them, my father pleaded that they should be released since they signed an undertaking not to kill anybody again. They were released. We did not know that they had hatched plans to eliminate all the people involved in reporting the matter to the police.
'On January 5, at about 5a.m, they broke into our house, armed to the teeth and they took my father and I away to the village square. At the square, we saw the other three men. We were stripped naked, laid on the ground and were given the beating of our lives. We thought that they would let us go after that, but they took us into a nearby bush as they kept chanting war songs and giving signs to one another. There, they lined all of us up and suddenly, one of them made a sign and one of them chopped off my father's left hand from his shoulder. Immediately my father shouted in agony, another person gave him a cut.
'All of them started cutting him with their machetes. He was butchered. The same fate befell the other men. There and then, something told me to run, that it was better I died trying to save my life than to watch these people cut me down.I dashed into the bush. They shot at me, but I was gone. Before then, they had soaked the bodies of my father the other men with fuel and ignited a match to burn them.
'We were told that in their cult, whenever they start killing, any one who refuses to participate will face the fate of the victims. After the killings, they came to our house chanting war songs. When my siblings heard them, they ran into the bush. They sprinkled fuel round the house and set it ablaze after breaking in and looting our property."
Chidinma Orji, first child and daughter of the victim, lamented what was done against her family. She told Daily Sun that her father had 10 children and she was the first child.
'They afflicted my mother with sickness for years now and she cannot do anything.
'The responsibility of taking care of my mother and brothers and sisters fell on me. I am only making phone calls in Abuja . I call on Nigerians to come to our aid. I am also calling on the authorities to ensure that justice is done against those who killed my father and other innocent citizens of Umudi in particular and Lopanta in general.
'Their killer squared is made up of about 16 persons, while women who are backing their activities are about 10."
Meanwhile, policemen from state CID, Umuahia have stormed Lopanta with intention to bring the murderers to book. A police source reliably told Daily Sun that some arrests had been made while some of the ring leaders are at large.
Those arrested are being held at the Abia State Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Umuahia.
A source from the village told Daily Sun that while some of the culprits are being held, the killings are still going on in the village unabated.
'The people are afraid to talk because any one who speaks, does so at his own peril," a source said.