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By Christopher Oji
A 15-year-old boy, Godwin Anuka (Junior), has narrated how he, his mother and sibling watched kidnappers shoot his father dead after they had collected ransom from the family.
Junior, his father, Godwin Anuka, mother, Mrs. Anuka, and one of his siblings had gone to their farm in Ubulu-Uku, Aniocha- South Local Government Area, Delta State, where they were abducted by five gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen.
He said they were happily doing their farmwork, which made him break out into joyous singing, “But the song attracted the killer Fulani people who traced us to our farm. We were kidnapped at gunpoint and they started taking us from one bush path to another. I don’t know what my father did to them and they shot him dead.”
“My father and mother were pleading with our abductors to spare the life of our father, but they didn’t heed my father’s plea as they shot him while my mother, my sibling and I watched. They shot him dead. They shot him twice. The first shot did not kill him, until they fired the second shot that killed him. When they fired the first shot, I heard my father shout, ‘Jesus,’ but the second shot knocked him off.
“The people who kidnapped us were Fulani people. I know Fulani people when I see them. They also held two other people in their camp where they held us until we were rescued by some soldiers and the Ubulu-Uku vigilance group,” he said.
Following the killing of Anuka Senior, the Ubulu-Uku community has called on Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori and the state’s Commissioner of Police to save them from the hands of killer herders who have surrounded their bushes and laid siege on them. Traditional Prime Minister of Ubulu-Uku Kingdom, James Asika Onwordi (Ibori Ubulu), has warned Fulani herdsmen to leave the community’s farmlands, as the people would no longer tolerate the killings in the land.
While calling on security agencies, federal and state governments to intervene and protect the people of Ubulu-Uku, he explained that there have been a series of violent incidents, including the kidnapping and murder of several community members.
Onwordi specifically mentioned the recent incident where Mr. Anuka, his wife and two underage children, alongside Mr. Afam Soeze and Chibueze from Issele-Uku, were kidnapped by Fulani herdsmen.
“Despite the payment of ransom, Mr. Anuka was shot and killed in his farm in the presence of his wife and children.
“This incident is just one of the many brutal attacks perpetrated by Fulani herdsmen in the area.” he said
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The Onishe emphasized that the community would no longer tolerate the presence of Fulani herdsmen, who have been terrorizing farmers and disrupting their livelihoods.
He noted that the community’s reliance on farming has been severely dealt a heavy blow as farmers are now afraid to tend their crops.
Onwordi urged the government and security agencies to take immediate action to protect the community, warning that if the activities of the herders are left unchecked the situation would escalate into a full-blown crisis.
He emphasized that the community was not seeking to take the law in their hands but, instead, seeking protection from the authorities.
“We are predominantly farmers; that is our pride, but this pride is being taken away from us by the Fulani herdsmen.
“As a kingdom, we are crying out and seeking security agencies’ intervention, as we don’t want to be pushed to the wall so as not to take laws in our hands, ” he said.
Human rights activist, Harrison Gwamnishu, who decried the wanton killings in Ubulu-Uku community by herdsmen, said, recently, “Chibueze from Issele-Uku, a student of Delta State Polytechnic, was kidnapped from Ogwashi on March 23, 2025; Afam Soeze was kidnapped outside his gate at Ubulu-Uku on the same day. Godwin Anuka, his wife and two children were kidnapped on March 29, 2025, at their farm in Ubulu-Uku. It’s the same five Fulani armed kidnappers that carried out these heinous crimes.
“They kidnapped Chibueze from Ogwashi-Uku, trekked to Ubulu-Uku and kidnapped Mr. Afam. They trekked, crossed the Isah Ogwashi/Ubulu-Uku road to Powerline and headed to farm road towards Ani-Uje Ubulu-Uku, where they camped for days and started calling for ransom. It was where they camped that they saw Godwin and his family and kidnapped all of them.
“The Ubulu-Uku Central Vigilante team and the Nigerian Army mobilized by Aniocha South LGA chairman, Pastor Jude Chukwunwike, and Ubulu-Uku Palace made an effort to rescue them.
“Yesterday, after a huge ransom was paid, the kidnappers released Chibueze, Afam, the late Godwin Anuka’s wife and two children and we were told that Anuka was shot and killed right inside the farm in the presence of his wife and children. They were released at Railway Line, after Akuku-Agbor.”
A community leader, Mark Chidozie, went down memory lane, stating that many people from Ubulu-Uku, including the king, were gruesomely murdered by Fulani herdsmen. He called on security agencies to wade in and save the Ubulu-Uku community from being wiped out by killer Fulani herdsmen.
