BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

…As hoodlums attack community, injure eight
OWERRI – A team of security personnel averted what would have been a blood bath in Owerri, when hired thugs attacked indigenes of Amawom in the disputed Area K of World Bank Housing Estate.

Vanguard gathered that no fewer than eight people suffered varying degrees of injuries when the hoodlums attacked Amawom people.

Confirming the incident to Vanguard in an interview, the leader of Amawom people, Sir Macdonald Ebere, said “we got wind of the impending attack and properly informed the police and State Security Service, SSS.”

According to Sir Ebere, the security personnel were on ground when the invading thugs stormed Area K.

Recalling that Amawom villagers had been very peaceful in their approach to stopping the state government from confiscating the only piece of land left for their expansion, Ebere, however, wondered why anybody would employ thugs to ignite bloodshed in the place.

He affirmed that the thugs were not necessarily Umuguma youths as being speculated but cultists recruited from several parts of the state.

Vanguard recalls that about two weeks ago, a group of thugs stormed the disputed land and battered the villagers, who were peacefully keeping watch over the piece of land.

The Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Mr. Samuel Oodee, could not be reached at press time but a senior police officer in the command confirmed that “thugs attacked Amawom villagers in Area K and were repelled”.