Survivor Recounts Horror As Gunmen Kill 11 in Anambra
A survivor of the recent massacre of Ebonyi indigenes in Ogboji, Anambra State, has shared a harrowing account of how gunmen turned a peaceful community meeting into a bloodbath, killing at least eleven people and injuring many others.
Onuoha Godwin, a member of the Ebonyi State Welfare Association in Ogboji, narrowly escaped with his life after sustaining gunshot wounds to his hand and stomach.
Speaking from his hospital bed, Godwin described the terrifying moment armed men invaded their monthly meeting and opened fire indiscriminately.
A video of his testimony, delivered in his native dialect, has since gone viral on social media.
Godwin, who hails from Inyimagu, Ikwo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, recounted that the attackers struck as the group was about to conclude its general meeting.
“We used to have our meeting two times a month. That day was our general meeting of Ebonyi State Welfare Association in Ogboji,” he said, his voice faint but steady.
“Towards evening, when we were about closing the meeting, some people carrying guns came in. We thought they were policemen who came for mass arrests. We didn’t know they were on a mission to kill us,” he said.
Godwin said the gunmen immediately asked for Augustine Odogwu, Chairman of the Ogboji branch of the association, before ordering everyone to lie down.
“The first thing they asked was, ‘Who is Augustine Odogwu?’ Then they ordered everybody to lie down,” Godwin recalled.
“They dragged me up and asked me what meeting we were doing. I told them it was the general meeting of Ebonyi indigenes. They said we were kicking against them, and then they shot me,” he said
He added that after repeated threats and gunshots into the air, they forced him to identify Augustine, whom they then executed on the spot before shooting him again.
“They came to me again and asked me to show them Augustine or they would kill me. I pointed at him. They brought him out and shot him right there. Then they shot me again,” he said.