A herdsman has been arrested with an AK-47 assault rifle and 24 rounds of live ammunition in Enugu.
The Police Public Relations Officer,
Enugu State Police Command, Mr. Ebere Amaraizu, who announced the arrest
on Tuesday, identified the herdsman as Ibrahim Adamumale.
Adamumale, said to be about 20 years old, is from Nasarawa State.
He resides at Hausa Quarters in the 9th
Mile Area of Enugu, but rears cattle in communities within the Udi
Local Government Area and environs.
It was gathered that Adamumale was apprehended in a bush in Affa community, in the Udi area on August 29.
Amaraizu explained that the herdsman
was in possession of the “sophisticated” weapon and ammunition when he
was accosted by policemen and some members of the community.
He revealed that members of the
community had earlier informed security agents about the herdsman’s
violent activities in the area.
Amaraizu said Adamumale fired several
shots into the air in an attempt to evade arrest, stating that the
shootings did not deter the policemen, who eventually apprehended and
took him into custody.
The police spokesman, who stated that
the suspect was being interrogated, added that the police were
investigating how the herdsman obtained the weapon.
The development came on the heels of a
recent herdsmen’s attack on Attakwu, a community in the Nkanu West Local
Government Area of Enugu State.
Herdsmen reportedly launched the attack after a woman chased away herds of cattle that were destroying crops in her farm.
A Catholic seminarian, Lazarus Nwafor, was killed while four others sustained severe injuries in the incident.
One of the injured, a middle-aged woman, later died in a hospital where she was receiving treatment.
The attack on Attakwu came exactly four
months after herdsmen invaded Ukpabi Nimbo, another Enugu community,
where about 20 persons were killed on April 25.
Meanwhile, the people of Attakwu
community have joined other communities in Enugu to demand the expulsion
of herdsmen from their territories.
The people of Attakwu said this when
the lawmaker representing Nkanu East/Nkanu West in the House of
Representatives, Mr. Chukwuemeka Ujam, visited the community to
commiserate with them over the herdsmen’s attack.
Community leaders and youths, who spoke
during the lawmaker’s visit, urged the Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi
Ugwuanyi, to emulate his Ekiti State counterpart, Ayo Fayose, by
enacting an anti-grazing law in the state.
Ujam had, during the visit, echoed
Ugwuanyi’s call on members of the community to keep calm and avoid
taking the law into their hands.
But the villagers did not welcome the
admonition, and threatened to embark on reprisals if the herdsmen were
not ordered to leave the community.
Ujam had, while commiserating with
members of the community, called on the security agencies and the
government to address the menace posed by herdsmen in Enugu State.
The lawmaker stated, “I am particularly
pained because we have been hearing of this in various parts of the
country but it has become constant in Enugu State.
“It was an unprovoked attack. Cattle came into a farm and the cattle were chased away. Does that warrant an attack?”