By Peter OKUTU
A group of gunmen alleged to hail from Ndike Amagu Ikwo community in Ikwo local government area of Ebonyi State last Saturday attacked their fellow kinsmen over who took possession of the Direct Data Capturing, DDC, machines in the on-going voters’ registration.

The group, which was alleged to be under the sponsorship of a prominent politician in the area, inflicted serious gun shot wounds on four of their victims as one of them was currently reported missing in the area.

Three of the victims, who are now being attended to at the Federal Medical Centre, FMC, Abakaliki, were in bad medical state when Vanguard visited the hospital.

More so, one of the victims, Alobu Benedict, who sustained serious gun shot wounds through the back to his stomach, according to medical experts, may die if sustained medical attention was not given to him as he had lost lots of blood before being transported to the hospital.

In their separate narrations, two other victims, Uche and Clement, who spoke from their sick beds, explained: “One of our kinsmen, Mr. Titus Nkoshi, a.k.a Itapa, former Coordinator of Ikwo South Development Centre on Saturday last week, arrived where we were awaiting the arrival of the Direct Data Capture machines from the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and ordered his thugs to shoot at us.

“Because we know his antecedents in the area, we took to our heels but bullets from nowhere caught up with us.”

When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Ebonyi State Police Command, Mr. John Eluu, who confirmed the incident, said they were still investigating the matter as there were varied versions of the claims.

He noted that three persons had so far been arrested in connection with the attack but did not, however, confirm whether the prime suspect, ‘Itapa’ was among those apprehended with other suspects.

Meanwhile, reliable sources had it that he was among those arrested by the Command.