Ex corps member recounts harrowing experience with Fulani herdsmen

READ: Family laments as Fulani herdsmen kill man, kidnap brothers

The victim identified as Eze Patrick Okechukwu, had reportedly been attacked a few days after he returned from Jigawa State, where he had carried out his one year mandatory national service.

The reports reveal that over 20 people had died in the gruesome attack, leaving a number of their victims, including Okechukwu, bedridden from gunshot and machete wounds.

Sunday Sun reports that Okechukwu who is a graduate of Geology and Mining from the Enugu State University (ESUT) had ben in his father’s house when the assailants had walked into their home with machetes and guns.

The victim had reportedly dashed into a nearby bush but had been followed by the attackers who went on to attack him with swords, cutting his hands, head, and legs, leaving him for dead.

Following a visit by Sunday Sun correspondents at the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Enugu, where Okechukwu had been referred for treatment, he had been seen lying in pains, with bandages wrapped all over his body while looking frail and helpless.

Speaking during the interview with Sunday Sun, Okechukwu said:

“It was a horrible experience. I saw the face of death. They cut me like wood and left when they thought I had died.”

Efforts to engage him in further conversation had been futile as talking was visibly painful for him, but his mother and other relatives had gone on to recount the experience.

Speaking to the correspondents, Okechukwu's mother said:

“They almost killed my son. Only God saved him. He was chased into the bush where they overpowered him and descended on him with machetes on his head, hands, legs and back. It was at the same spot that they killed three persons, including a 70-year-old man. They thought my son was dead and left him. Later, my son was rescued and put in a wheelbarrow from the bush to the main road. He was rushed to Nsukka in a pool of blood.”

The reports further reveal that the herdsmen had spared women and children during the attack, as one of the women who had come face to face with the herdsmen revealed to the Sunday Sun that the attackers had ordered her back to her house with the assurance that they would not hurt women and children.

She added that the assailants had been about 15 in number, explaining that about five of them had been herdsmen, while others had looked robust.

A reliable source also reveals that the herdsmen had gone into the premises of St Marys Catholic Church, but upon the discovery that the people found in the church at the time had been mostly women, they had vandalized the windows and other items, leaving the women unharmed.

READ: In Benue: Fresh clash with Fulani herdsmen leave 4 dead

The reports reveal that a former councilor of Nimbo Ward 2 and his father had been the first victims, and had according to reports been stabbed repeatedly with swords.

The elderly man had died on the spot but his son had been rushed to the hospital, where he is reportedly responding to treatment.