Police have blamed the death of seven persons at Ohali-Elu town in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State on herdsmen who raided the town last Thursday. The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Musa Kimo, who disclosed this in a statement signed on his behalf by the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Ahmad Muhammad, noted that a cleric, Pastor Geoffrey Ogagaghene, was among those killed during the attack. He said that the pastor was inflicted with machete cuts, which led to his death.
According to him, six others also lost their lives during the incident. Kimo dismissed reports that 16 persons lost their lives in the attack. The commissioner said the herdsmen raided the community over alleged stealing of a cow by some youths in the area.
Kimo added that the matter was not reported to the police by the herdsmen before they invaded the community. He said: “The command found it instructive to state that on Thursday 30/03/2016 about 5:30a.m., the police in Egi Division received a report that on Wednesday 29/03/2016 about 10p.m. unidentified assailants suspected to be herdsmen struck in Ohali- Elu town leaving Pastor Geoffrey Ogagaghene, with severe machete cuts that later led to his death.
“It is also pertinent to state that in the build-up to the attack, there was a case of stealing of unspecified number of cows belonging to some herdsmen allegedly perpetrated by the youth of the community, but the case was never reported to the police.
“It is reasonably suspected that the attack might have been carried out by the herdsmen as reprisal for stealing their cows. Unconfirmed sources indicated six other persons lost their lives after the attack. “But the death of these six persons still remains unconfirmed for the simple reason that the police neither recovered nor saw the corpses at the time of responding to the incident.”
