By Our crime Reporter
Villagers are yet to recover from shock of a tragedy that hits Umuaka Amiyi Community in Imo State of Nigeria, as suspected gunmen launched virulent attacks on Mr. Ana Cletus Okorom’s Compound, dislodged his family members and raze down his house.
One of his children, a 41-year old Anthony Emeka Okoro, was angrily attacked, manhandled, blindfolded and whisked away in a gestapo fashion to an undisclosed destination, by these gun wielding bandits.
Anthony’s whereabouts couldn’t be ascertained for days, as these assailants were desperately seeking his life unjustly and for undisclosed offence.
A grapevine source in the community confirmed to Standard Times Newspapers that men of a proscribed group known as IPOB, stormed the family home of Mr. Anthony Emeka Okoro, tearing apart a life built on peace, faith, and family.
The eyewitness account recounted that Anthony’s 73-year old father, Mr. Ana Cletus Okorom, was beaten mercilessly, as he tried to shield his
son, where all pleas fell on deaf ears.
The source, who is an elderly villager, revealed that : “They came early. Called his name. We all heard it. But none of us dared to move. His voice trembling not from age, but raw terror.
“No one could help, because they were shooting sporadically into the air to scare the villagers. No one dared them. They were fully armed. They razed down his home just because he was trying to protect his son”.
The incident had forced Anthony to go into hiding to prevent being murdered by these assailants, who were desperately seeking to snuff life out of him.
As if the harrowing trial was yet to end for this distraught family, the gun-flaunting IPOB militants resurfaced early 2023 within the same compound , seeking the son they had earlier abducted, where they kidnapped Mr. Ana Cletus Okorom, tortured him brutally, demanding to know his son’s whereabouts.
“The family and the entire village was put into deep mourning on February 10, 2023, as Mr Ana Cletus Okorom’s lifeless, mangled body was dumped in the village market square. The villagers buried him quickly and quietly. Grief weighed heavy on the hearts of all”, it was gathered.
It was reliably gathered that after all these nasty and excruciating experiences, the gunmen placed a bounty of N1 million on Anthony’s head, which came after losing his father and now being hunted like a prey.
A source said: “Since that day, Anthony, his pregnant wife, and their young son have been banished into hiding. Whether alive or dead, no one knows. The air in Amiyi Umuaka is thick with fear and grief in Umuaka”.
The source said this attack was a fraction in the series of coordinated attacks being waged against the people of the Southeast Nigeria in the last one decade by unknown gunmen.
“In the silence, children disappear.
In the silence, organs are harvested. In the silence, families vanish overnight.The very soul of a people is being strangled and the world looks away”.
It could be recalled that on May 3, 2022, the world witnessed another grotesque act of brutality as Master Warrant Officer A.M. Linus and his wife, Private Gloria Matthew Nigerian Army officers, were ambushed, shot, and beheaded in Igbo land.
Painfully, the murderers, after committing this atrocity, mocked the grieving families with phone
calls.
“This is no longer a political crisis. This is no longer about separatism or ideology. This is a humanitarian catastrophe. To the Nigerian Government: How many fathers must be buried? How many children must vanish before you
speak?”, a source who craved anonymity lamented.
Meanwhile, the youth of the Umuaka Amiyi Village have made passionate appeal to the international community to intervene and rescue the community from senseless attacks and killings, describing the attack on Okorom’s family as devastating and highly depressing.
A Youth Leader in the town, Fidelis Amaechi, said: “Anthony Emeka Okoro is still missing. His late father, Mr. Ana Cletus Okorom was murdered. His unborn child was lost to fear. This was a great injustice to this peaceful family.
“Just recently, a girl named Chidiebere was slaughtered in the forest of Nnewi. Linus and Gloria were beheaded for serving their nation. And countless others whose names will never be known. Let Justice rise where silence has reigned”, he stated.
