Gunmen abduct 2 children, butcher another in Ebonyi

Gunmen suspected to be hired assassins yesterday kidnapped two children and inflicted machete cuts on their paternal grandfather in Ndi-Uduma village, Oso-Edda in Afikpo South Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.
According to sources from the village, the criminals stormed the home of one Mr. James (surname withheld by us) around 10pm on Thursday night and shot sporadically in the air. They said the hoodlums abducted the children and attacked their grandfather after their parents had escaped through the backdoor.
The incident came barely five days after angry mob in the neighbouring Amoso-Nta village allegedly set a vehicle belonging to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Ebonyi State Police Command on fire.
Five SARS officials, it was alleged by sources who craved anonymity for fear of police harassment, had allegedly gone to the community in the dead of the night last Sunday to arrest a suspected Indian hemp merchant, but were mistaken for criminals by local vigilance group.
One of them narrated: “So, when they came, because the villagers recorded a kidnap incident last year, they set up vigilance group. The youths were on night duty when they arrived.
“They didn’t know that SARS came to arrest a villager. So, the man raised an alarm. On getting to that place, the SARS men were not in uniform and they didn’t come with their official vehicle.
“So, the villagers mistook them for kidnappers and attacked them. The angry mob pursued after them. Incidentally, their vehicle was stuck in the sand, where it was set ablaze, while policemen ran away.”
But Thursday’s incident, our source who pleaded anonymity for fear of attack, narrated that the incident came to them as a shock as the targeted family was reported to be members of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who were to be very peaceful and never engaged in political activities.
“They marched on the residence of one James and started shooting sporadically. They wanted to enter their house but they didn’t succeed because of the protectors, but they shattered the louver blades.
“Then, the head of the family managed to escape with his wife through the backdoor, leaving their children, who were seven and five years respectively.”
“The gunmen now entered through the backdoor and took the two children away since that yesterday; burnt some of their property.
“Same night, they visited James’ father and inflicted him with matchet cuts all over his body. As I am talking to you now, he has been rushed to Martha Hospital in Afikpo North for treatment. I am suspecting that they came to kill him”, he narrated.
When contacted on the telephone, the police spokesperson in the state, Loveth Odah, said she was yet to get clarifications from Afikpo South police division.
-Sun