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From Chijioke Agwu, Abakaliki
Gunmen yesterday raided Akaeze community in Ivo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.
The gunmen, who attacked the community Tuesday night, destroyed property belonging to the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for Ivo State Constituency for Saturday’s governorship and House of Assembly elections, Mr. Onyebuchi Ogbadu.
Sources in the area, who confirmed the incident to journalists in Abakaliki, added that a petrol station belonging to Mr. Ogbadu, who is the immediate past chairman of Ivo local government council, was partly set ablaze by the gunmen during the attack.
One of the sources, a community leader, who did not want his name in print, said “yesterday night, gunmen attacked the Akaeze community. They were many in number. They destroyed property belonging to our former chairman, Onyebuchi Ogbadu, his fuel station was touched and other property, too.”
Asked if any life was lost during the attack, he said: “For now, we don’t have any record of loss of life.
But, we are still taking inventory of things lost and destroyed during the attack; maybe, by the time we are done, we would know if anybody was killed during the attack. You know it happened in the night, so it is too early to know all that happened in the night. Maybe before evening, we can know.”
Another stakeholder from the community, who begged not to be mentioned, accused the opposition of masterminding the attack.
He said: “We know that the opposition were behind the attack because when they came, they were destroying billboards belonging to the APC, but they didn’t touch those of the PDP. Even the fuel station they tried to set ablaze belongs to the APC candidate in Saturday’s election.”
The Police Public Relations Officer, Ebonyi Command, Onome Onovwakpoyeya, was not available for comment at the time of filing this report.
