Residents of Amaeze in Ishiagu community, Ivo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State have been thrown into a state of panic and uneasiness following the death of three youths in the area.
The victims according to community source were allegedly attacked and killed around the boundary between Amaeze in Ishiagu, Ivo local government area and Lokpa in Abia state.
The three youths, namely; Tony Orji, Ngwuoke and James Uka were in their late 30s. Two of them from Amaeze and one from Ihietutu met their untimely death on Sunday evening while returning from where they went to negotiate for fish business usually gotten from an abandoned mining pit left by Yitta.
Another source Mr. Monday Okorie, chairman of Amaeze Community Development Union confirmed the incident to newsmen in Abakiliki.
Okorie said women who went to the farm and discovered the bodies of the deceased broke the news about the gruesome murder of the indigenes.
He further said that information about the incident is still sketchy, noting that the matter had been reported to the police for investigation.
Okorie said that two of the deceased were from Amaeze while the third victim was an indigene of Ihietutu community resident in Amaeze.
“I was alerted by some community women who were going to their farms early this morning about the discovery of three bodies at farmland at the border between our community and Lokpa community in Abia State.
“I immediately made contact with the Ivo Division of the Nigeria Police and also mobilised our youths who went with the police and recovered the bodies.
“We cannot, for now, ascertain the real cause, motive or those behind the killing of these our vibrant youths. “And the sudden death of these three youths has caused fear and panic in this community.
“We shall do everything possible within the ambit of the law to unveil the actors,” he said.
Efforts to reach the PPRO, Ebonyi State Police Command DSP Loveth Odah to comment proved abortive as she could not pick her call as at the time of filling this report.
But a top police officer serving at the Ivo Division of the Nigeria Police, who doesn’t want his name on print, confirmed the incident. “We got a distress call from the chairman of Amaeze community about the discovery of three fresh dead bodies at farmland at a border between Amaeze and Lokpa community.
“The Divisional Police Officer mobilised officers to the scene of the crime and recovered the three bodies which have been deposited at a morgue in Ishiagu,” the source said.
Meanwhile, the member representing Ohaozara, Ivo, Onicha Federal Constituency, Hon. Livinus Makwe has frowned at what he described as inhuman, barbaric, uncouth and devastating act of killing of three energetic youths of Amaeze Ishiagu in Ivo LGA Ebonyi State.
Makwe in a statement released by his media office in Abakaliki decried the rising security failures in Ohanivo and called on both federal and state governments to unravel the miscreants that perpetrated such heinous act.
He further described the news as unheard of, how three energetic youths will leave their respective homes only to be killed with countless matchet cuts that left them all dead. He extends his heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families and the good people of Ohanivo.
