By Adadareporters
About seventeen houses were early Monday morning burnt completely at Ikolo in Igbo-Etiti Local Government Area of Enugu State.
The incident, whose perpetrators are yet to be identified, consumed property worth millions of naira. It is not clear if lives were lost, but there are reported cases of missing persons.
Collins Ibeh is a native of the community. He said everything in his house was burnt: “We slept safely yesterday. Around 1:30am this morning, we began to hear gunshots and unusual sounds from our neighbourhood. The youths were alerted. We gathered, and when we realised that the shots were approaching our area, we took refuge in the bush. We could hear what they were saying. The dialect is that of our neighbouring community.
“They were over fifty. We saw them setting fire on our houses. We could not recognise their faces because it was dark. In my own house, everything is gone. Our three motorcylces are burnt. We stored eleven drums of palm oil. They are gone. The worst part is that my grandmother is missing.”
Another casualty is Anastasia Ibeh. According to her, “Around 2am, the noise became too much. The gunshots were raining. I told my daughter that we must run away because they might kill us. We escaped narrowly. This morning, we returned and saw that our house has been consumed. Our stored ten drums of oil, my children’s certificates, all gone!”
The state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Daniel Ndukwe, is yet to issue a statement on the development.
