In Anambra, Ụmụọma Gunmen Storm Igwe's Palace, Cart Away More Guns

By Izunna Okafor

Few days after invading Ebenator Community in Nnewi South Local Government Area of Anambra State, the new brand of Unknown Gunmen, popularly known as Ụmụọma, have visited the Community again.

According to report by one of the residents of the community who pleaded anonymity, the gunmen re-visited the community again last night (Monday) and drove straight to the palace of the Traditional Ruler of Ebenator, H.R.H. Igwe Chinaewubeze Ezejiburu, where all the security men in the community had submitted their guns after the first visit by the gunmen.

Recall that the gunmen had previously (on Friday night) invaded the community, where they moved from house to house to forcefully disarm the vigilante members in the town.

During the night-long operation (last Friday), some of the vigilante members in the community were dispossessed of their guns by the heavily-armed Ụmụọma Gunmen who also subjected the security men and their family members to various degrees of tortures and harassments while carrying out their mission.

It was also gathered that the men, after their first operation in the Community, emphasized that they would come back again to complete their mission, as they could not disarm all the security men in the Community that night.

Our source revealed that immediately after the operation, some of the security men who were not disarmed that night, unanimously agreed to submit their guns to the traditional ruler of the community, Igwe Ezejiburu, probably to avert the risk of having the uninvited visitors come by themselves to collect the guns directly from them, which would be accompanied by undeserved torture or even more horrible consequences.

“Consequent upon that, warning” the source said “all the remaining security men in the Community who were not visited that night hurriedly submitted their guns to our Igwe, which Ụmụọma surprisingly stormed yesterday and carried away.”

“They came with a shuttle bus and motorcycles without plate numbers. But they didn't shoot anybody,” he added.

This last night operation has included Ebenator in the list of other communities in Nnewi South where the Ụmụọma Gunmen have forcefully dispossessed all their security men of their guns.

The community-by-community disarming mission in Nnewi South was said to have started in the Ezinifite community, which shares common boundary with Amaruru, Lilu and other areas that have recently become major security flashpoints and operational zones of the Unknown Gunmen in Anambra State.

The reaction of the Police Public Relations Officer in Anambra State, DSP Tochukwu Ikenga, on the matter, was yet to be received, as he was yet to respond to message sent to him, as at the press time.