Hoodlums Machete Church Teacher, Gardener in Obiano’s Community, accuses Umueri

 Some unknown gunmen attacked St. Peters Anglican Church Aguleri in Anambra-East local government area of Anambra state.

They attacked the catechist and gardener of the church leaving both victims in the pool of their own blood. 

The hoodlums neither came to steal nor to dispossess them off their belongings but the mission was to capture and kill the resident Priest whom they couldn’t get due to their inability to find their way to his apartment upstairs even though they had placed a ladder on the wall of the one-storeyed building to achieve their set target . 

The church teacher Mr.Christopher Chukwu who had come out in the dead of the night to ease himself was said to have seen strange flashlights in the church premises and proceeded towards the direction of the light to ascertain what it was only for the hoodlums to pounce on him using machetes and other weapons on him.

 
His cry for help however alerted the resident Priest Rev.Akachukwu Ikedilo and the gardener one Mr.Mathew Nwude who was said to have suffered the same fate in a bid to rescue the catechist from the marauders.

Rev.Akachukwu Ikedilo who narrated the ordeal to our correspondent said that it was the church teacher and the gardener who encountered the hoodlums and that from what he was told the miscreants cut him with an axe and that in a bid to escape the hoodlums inflicted more injuries on him and the gardener . That when he came down to ascertain what happened , the criminals had fled and left the church teacher and the gardener in a pool of blood . 

The President-General Aguleri Community Assembly Chief Barr. Hipo Onwuegbuke who also narrated the sad event to our correspondent in Aguleri recalled that he got a distress call in the wee hours of last week Wednesday morning at about 3:45 am from one of their relatives one Joe Nwokedi who lives close to St.Peters Anglican Church Aguleri that the church was under siege by hoodlums.

 
The President-General said he immediately alerted the police and local vigilantes who stormed the church premises just in time but unfortunately the miscreants had escaped through Umueri , a neighbouring community . The PG said the police and local vigilante operatives saw the ladder with which the hoodlums wanted to climb to get to the resident priest.

 
According to him , ” what I was told was that the catechist who lives downstairs came out to ease himself and saw two men and went there and said what are you people doing here and they started macheting him . The man is still in the hospital receiving treatment as we speak now . We have gone to police and made statements and the Bishop of the Diocese is also involved in this matter . ” 

Onwuegbuke however opined that he was flabbergasted when the Police Public Relations Officer of the Anambra State Command of the Nigeria Police alleged in a report that the horrible event that occurred at St.Peters Anglican Church Aguleri was an attempted armed-banditry , wondering why the police should hold such position in a sensitive matter of such magnitude even though he said it falls within the purview of the police to conduct investigations and come up with reliable information.

 
The President-General noted that in spite of the ugly episode of last week Wednesday at St.Peters Anglican Church Aguleri , vigilante operatives foiled another attack on the same church on Thursday 4th July at about 2 am . He alleged that some people with pump action came to the church with over seven motorcycles and were flashing lights on the sign post of St.Peters Anglican Church only to be accosted by local vigilantes who challenged them and thwarted their plans.

Although the President-General noted that Aguleri was not at war with its neighbours , he also disclosed that there is an existing Joint Peace Committee comprising Umueri and Aguleri people , a platform set up to broker peace and harmonious existence between the two communities, even though he said accusing fingers were pointing in the direction of Umueri as they suspect that the hoodlums that attacked the Anglican church were from the community . 

But in a swift reaction to the allegations levelled against Umueri on the St.Peters Anglican Church saga , the traditional ruler of Umueri His Royal Majesty Igwe Sir Ben Izuchukwu Emeka said such allegations were baseless and that his community can not be held culpable for what happened in Aguleri or any other surrounding community .

He said ” if anybody is linking Umueri or anybody from Umueri to a crime that is committed in Aguleri , he is being wicked and very malicious . Because in Aguleri there are crimes and in Umueri there are crimes too . The ones that happen in Umueri we have never attributed it to anybody.

If a crime is committed it is left for the police to unravel and investigate where the criminal elements come from . So for anybody to say or go to the social media and be alleging that it is people from Umueri that did it is the most wicked and malicious act . I am an Anglican . The Bishop called me around 3 am and said crime has taken place and I quickly called our local vigilantes from Umueri . So am surprised that somebody will go to the social media and be writing that it is people from Umueri .

Well , what I want to say is that there are so many people writing damaging things about Umueri . I don’t know what they want . So they should stay on their own and not create the kind of communal war or hatred amongst the two communities . Umueri and Aguleri are brothers.

The communal war that happen in 1999 , most of these boys writing these things were not born by then .They have not experienced war . They should mind the way they talk .They should not pre-empt police investigations saying that it is people from Umueri . Whoever that wrote that kind of thing is being wicked and very malicious . What they are writing is a figment of their own imagination and nobody can instigate Governor Willie Obiano against me through malicious social media contents . ” 

Whoever that wrote that kind of thing is being wicked and very malicious . What they are writing is a figment of their own imagination and nobody can instigate Governor Willie Obiano against me through malicious social media contents . ”