… I’m alive, rape victim denies protesters’ claim she’s dead
By Gabriel Achadu
The people of Eha-Amufu, a border town in Isi-Uzo Local Government Area of Enugu State have debunked alleged recent mass killings and arson in their communities.
This was even as a rape victim, Mrs. Amarachi Nnaji, refuted the claim that she was dead, saying that although the unfortunate incident happened, she was already picking up the bits of her life.
The indigenes and community leaders spoke to journalists, who were on a fact-finding mission to the area regarding recent viral videos of protest and counter-protest by groups of women over alleged recent mass killings and widespread arson in Eha-Amufu communities.
Speaking to a group of journalists, President-General of Mgbuji Eha-Amufu, Donatus Odoh, however confirmed past mass attacks on the communities of Eha-Amufu by suspected herders before the coming of the Peter Mbah Administration, especially in 2022 when the community was sacked, leaving so many people dead.
“So, on the issue of the protest being done last week or so, on the basis of the supposed killing of 100 or 200 persons in Eha-Amufu recently as i saw in one video being circulated, none of that happened. I do not know where people are getting their information from.
“Nothing happened here in Mgbuji, Eha-Amufu two weeks ago. But there was an incident that occurred in another autonomous community in February. There was one Igwurube Ndubuisi Donatus that was killed, but I cannot give details of what happened to him because I was not there. The way you heard it was the same way I got the information,” he said.
He also said that although the rape victim was from another community in Eha-Amufu, he was involved in arranging her medical treatment following government’s intervention, saying she was not dead as claimed during the protest.
“I saw the woman being driven on a bike returning from the market the other day. She was healthy,” Odoh emphasised.
Another community leader, Chief Richard Ogenyi said that but for isolated incidents, security had continued to improve since the 2022 attack through the interventions of the state and local governments under Governor Mbah and the Council Chairman, Barr. Obiora Obeagu.
He was emphatic that there were no such ongoing attacks and mass killings as portrayed by protesters on the social media recently.
“From my own view, they protested against the herders invasion of our place and their inability to farm like before because as you can see, this place you are seeing now is called Orie Ogbete or Orie Uzo Ugbo Mgbuji. It was a lively place before the herders drove us away in 2022.
“So, how I view what happened one or two weeks ago as an independent person is that what the women did was good because it will create awareness.
“But the truth is that there was an element of politics in the protest and I am not happy about it because they would have focused on the main issue.
“So, I am surprised to hear that many people numbering in the hundreds were killed in Eha-Amufu. After the incident of 2022, we have not witnessed such a number of killings being circulated.
“Since Obiora Obeagu’s second term and Governor Mbah administration, we have witnessed a lot of security improvement and insecurity has dropped drastically. As for the recent protest on ongoing mass killings, none happened in Mgbuji here where I come from apart from the damaging of crops by the herdsmen,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the rape victim from Abor Eha-Amufu, Mrs. Amarachi Nnaji, while recounting her unfortunate experience in the hands of herders in the interior farms after a spirited effort to fight off her assailants, however, said that the account that stick was inserted in her womanhood or that she was in the mortuary were false.
“They put their hands in the zip of my cloth and tore it open but I kept holding my cloth very tight until the two people dragged me into the middle of the cassava farm and subdued me there,” she recounted.
Interacting with journalists, the Council Chairman, Obeagu, while admitting the existence of security challenges strongly refuted the story of any recent killings in Eha-Amufu communities, except that of an undergraduate, noting that the Mbah Administration had since coming into office in 2023 continued to put in place both security and infrastructural measures that had ensured that what happened in 2022 did not repeat itself.
These include the deployment of over 150 soldiers, deployment of Special Forces with Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) and gun trucks, ongoing collaboration between the state government and the Nigerian Army to construct military barracks in that border community, and the nearly completed 21.7km Agape-Agu Mgbuji-Ogbete asphalt road to open up our farm settlements and enhance security and vehicular access to the farmlands and forests.
He blamed bad politics and deliberate lies and misinformation for the protest.
“So, when people tell you it was a spontaneous protest, it was not. It was orchestrated, very well planned. In one of the clips I watched, a man was in the background like a hypeman, trying to hype the situation. I heard him say that last week 200 people were killed, this week 100 people were killed. Yet he did not show the burnt houses, nobody was showing any images, while the things they talked about are things that are graphic. People tried to throw up things, but when you see it, you will see those are things that happened two to three years ago. I saw a woman talking about what they did to her husband and herself in the last four years.
“In summary, we have challenges and problems, and we are dealing with them. If it was what happened in Eha-Amufu recently, there’s nothing like mass killings, nothing like burning of houses by herders, it did not happen. Feel free, go into the town and ask questions. Tell them to take you to the place all those things happened. I can bet you nobody will show you one,” he said emphatically.
