Four
policemen were feared dead following attack by gunmen suspected to be Fulani
herdsmen along the farmlands alleged to have been forcefully taken over by
herdsmen
in Abraka, Ethiope-East Local Government Area of Delta State.
The incident
occurred on Tuesday when the officers were returning from the site of the
yet-to-be demarcated land in Eku and Oria communities when they were attacked
by the herdsmen.
It was
learnt that the herdsmen had used their cattle to block the police van before
opening fire on them killing a police inspector on the spot.
Findings had
it that another officer died on the way to the hospital where two other victims
were being rushed for urgent medical attention on Tuesday night.
Local and
security sources disclosed on Wednesday that the remaining two police victims
died on Wednesday at an undisclosed hospital where they had been rushed to for
treatment.
One of the
survivors said, “The team and an executive member of the Umiaghwa-Abraka
vigilante group were on their way back to the police station after assessing
the Eku and Oria communities following a boundary dispute between a company
operating in the area and the locals when they were ambushed.”
The lawmaker
representing Ethiope East in the Delta State House of Assembly, Evance Ivwurie,
described the attacks by the herdsmen as unwarranted.
He said, “We
have been crying about this to the whole world, yet people felt we were just
talking. Now, if they could kill armed policemen, what is the fate of my
constituents?”
When
contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Andrew Aniamaka,
confirmed the attack on the policemen but said only one inspector died.
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