Armed youths suspected to be cultists yesterday attacked Udianga Enem community in Etim Ekpo Local Government Area, killing four persons and destroying properties worth millions of Naira.
According to some local residents, the gunmen arrived in several motorcycles and shot dead four persons including a Pastor, Mr. Uwem Ananki and a radio mechanic, simply identified as Da Mon.
Narrating his ordeal, the Village Head of Udianga Enem, Chief Mendie Josiah Udo Ekoriko, whose compound was also attacked, lamented that his motorcycle was seized by the hoodlums.
"They set fire on the Affiong market in the village, and some other compounds including Idung Akpanawo, where women, children were chased away while some of the youths in the communities ran away from their homes.
Most of the fleeing youths, A Vanguard source said, had gunshot injuries. It was gathered from Ekoriko that after overcoming the youths in the communities, with some fleeing with wounds, the rampaging armed cultist thereafter set some houses ablaze.
According to him, "the Pastor came to this compound to see his aunt and was so unlucky to be around when the hoodlums arrived as they shot him several times at close range".
He appealed to security agencies to draft a standby Police unit in the community "because people no longer sleep at homes at night because these armed hoodlums have nothing to fear.
"Farming which is the main business of everybody in this community has been disrupted because farmers can no longer go to the farms alone", he lamented.
The Local Government Chairman, Hon. Udeme Eduo, who is from the affected village, confirmed the incident, saying he had met with the Commissioner of Police (CP), Mr. Muazu Zubairu, with a view to apprehending the suspects, as well as strengthen security in the troubled area.
The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Chukwu Ikechukwu, was said to be in a security meeting and could not pick calls put through to his phone.
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