Tension rises in Enugu as herdsmen murder UNIZIK lecturer

Fulani Herdsmen

Gunmen suspected to be herdsmen had on Thursday murdered one Dr Nnamdi Ogueche, a senior lecturer at the Nnamdi Azikwe University, Awka, Anambra State.

The incident which happened in Enugu state, came within a day after the decomposing body of a Catholic priest, Rev. Fr. Clement Ugwu, was found in a bush.

Rev. Fr. Ugwu was kidnapped from the St. Mark Catholic Church, Obinofia Ndiuno in the Ezeagu Local Government Area of Enugu State on Wednesday, March 13, 2019, while undertaking his routine jogging.

The Herald reported that Ogueche was said to been shot dead while returning from a peace meeting between his kinsmen and Fulani herdsmen in the state capital on Wednesday along the Iwolo Road in the Ezeagu Local Government Area of the state.

The peace meeting was summoned by the Special Adviser to Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi on Security Matters, Brig. Gen. Fred Eze (retd.). The meeting was said to have been held between community members and the herdsmen in Uzo-Uwani.

The lecturer attended the meeting as the Administrative Secretary of the Uzo-Uwani Local Government Council.

It was gathered that Ogueche’s killing might be intended to ignite another round of crisis between the herdsmen and the people of Uzo-Uwani.

During the said meeting, Ogueche was said to have been appointed as a member of a team to assess the extent of damage of yam barns in Adaba, his community, and Umulokpa, alleged to have been destroyed by herders in the area.

Confirming the incident, the state Commissioner of Police, Sulieman Balarabe promised to bring the perpetrators of the killings to justice, just as he paraded five herdsmen alleged to specialise in kidnapping in the state.