Following different media reports on the killings that occurred in Ohali-Elu town recently, the Rivers State Police Command has come out to confirm that the community was invaded by suspected herdsmen.
Vanguard reports that alleged unidentified gunmen stormed Ohali-Elu town in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State, killing at least 12 people after a burial programme last week Wednesday.
According to a press statement signed by the Public Relations Officers, DSP Ahmad Muhammad, the police revealed that the invasion was by suspected herdsmen as against the earlier report of cult war.
Muhammad said the command gathered that there was a case of missing cows which preceded the invasion, stressing that the killings would not be unconnected with the missing cows.
The police spokesman said about six people were feared dead in the incident, adding that only the pastor was confirmed dead while the corpse of five were not seen for confirmation. He disclosed that the victims were inflicted with machete cuts and not gun wounds.
Muhammad said: “The command found it instructive to state that last Thursday, at about 5:30a.m, the police in Egi Division received a report that on Wednesday at about 10:00 p.m, unidentified assailants suspected to be herdsmen struck in Ohali-Elu town leaving one Pastor Geoffrey Ogagaghene with severe cutlass cuts that later led to his death.”
“It’s also pertinent to state that in the build-up to the attack, there was a case of stealing of unspecified number of cows belonging to some herdsmen allegedly perpetrated by the youths of the community, but the case was never reported to the police.
“It is reasonably suspected that the attack might have been carried out by the herdsmen as reprisal for stealing their cows.
“Unconfirmed sources indicated six other persons lost their lives after the attack, the death of these six persons still remain unconfirmed for the simple reason that the police neither recovered nor visibly saw the corpses at the time of responding to the incident.”
Muhanmad added that calm has been restored in the area as the command has deployed adequate armed mobile policemen to forestall further breakdown of law and order.
He further said investigation into the incident was at its peak in order to bring the perpetrators of the act to justice.
