The entire
Aggah community in Rivers State is now a ghost town by yesterday, courtesy of
two-week-long attacks which had claimed 16 lives, scores of residents were
injured and 50 houses and shops burnt down.
Aggah
which is a community in Egbema/ Ndoni LGA, has been deserted as residents
following the bloody confrontation between De-gbam and De-Nell cult groups are
now taking refuge in neighbouring villages and the city of Port Harcourt.
An
eyewitness narrated how people, including old men and women were running out of
the community to prevent being hit by stray bullets from sophisticated weapons
used by the warring cult groups, that started shooting and killings two weeks
ago.
A source
told Daily Sun that the situation was so pathetic and helpless that
securitymen were using their vehicles to evacuate people from Aggah to safe
areas .
Some of
the weary and weak elderly persons, were said to have fainted on the journey,
but were assisted by the equally, fear-stricken youths to get out of the
community, which many literarily described to be on fire.
The source
disclosed how the suspected cultists were setting houses and shops ablaze, and
ensuring that the affected houses and shops were burnt to ashes, before they
moved to other locations.
Checks
revealed that some of the innocent persons, shot dead by the suspected cult
groups were a school principal identified as Ethelbert Nwakere and Melford Uwasike,
whose body was burnt beyond recognition. The remains of Melford were
immediately interred when the family discovered that it would be difficult to
deposit same in the mortuary.
The number
of persons murdered is likely to increase, as bodies of victims were still
being discovered in bushes as at yesterday morning.
Meanwhile,
soldiers, policemen and other security agencies have taken over the community
and were combing the bush to fish out the cultists. It was, however, gathered
that the security agents have succeeded in killing two of the cultists. One of
the dead suspected cultists was simply identified as Chinagoro.
The clash
was allegedly triggered off by job opportunities offered by one of the oil
companies in the area.
- Daily Sun
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