Police, Monarch, Fulani Leaders Debunk Reports of Alleged Return Of Herdsmen to Nimbo Community

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News Wednesday, June 8th, 2016

By IGNATIUS OKPARA, Enugu

ENUGU, NIGERIA (AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Contrary to some newspapers reports on Wednesday alleging that Fulani herdsmen are back to Nimbo community in Uzo-Uwani council area of Enugu state, and have raped five women, traditional ruler of the area, Igwe John Akor, the state police command, leaders of Fulani community in the state, and the council chairman, have debunked the publication, saying there is no iota of truth in the story.

AFRICAN EXAMINER recalled that the community was badly attacked in the early hours of April 25, 2016 by suspected Fulani herdsmen, during which scores of people were massacred and several buildings set ablaze.

Igwe Akor, also denied ever saying that the herdsmen have returned to his community, stressing that there has been no further threat to peace in the area since the ugly incident occurred.

He said he was surprised to read such reports in the media.

Dismissing the report on Wednesday in Enugu while speaking with newsmen alongside leaders of fulani community in Enugu state, the monarch maintained that there was no element of truth whatsoever in the said report that anybody was raped in his community.

He explained that though soldiers deployed to the community since the incident occurred, have left, there is still a heavy presence of police personnel all over the area.

The traditional ruler noted that such report is capable of causing serious tension and anxiety in the devastated community.

In their reaction to the publications, leaders of the Fulani community in Enugu state, who also dismissed the report, vowed that under no circumstance would any Fulani herdsman return to Nimbo after the killings that caused so much uproar in April.

The Enugu state police command on its part, also debunked the reports, disclosing that ever since the ugly attack on the community, there has been heavy presence of its men in the area, adding that it was not possible in the present circumstance for the marauding herdsmen to return to “Nimbo under any guise not to talk of raping women.”

Spokesman for the command, Ebere Amaraizu, in a statement said the police have already started their investigation to get at the root of the reports by finding out those who fed the press with such false information and what their motives were.

In his own reaction, chairman of Uzo-Uwani local Government Transition Committee, Mr. Conel Onwubuya, regretted the new insinuations on the Nimbo matter, saying it was totally false to report that the herdsmen are back to the area.

The chairman in a statement, recalled the current efforts his administration has been making and the all-round efforts of Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s administration to ensure that the Nimbo killings would become the last of such crisis between herdsmen and communities in the state.