How soldiers killed, burn houses in Imo community-Eye witness

As news about the crisis in Umuokwe Aboshi, Izombe, Oguta LGA of Imo state between the Army with the villagers continues to make the rounds, an eye witness who spoke to our correspondent said that more than 10 Hilux vans filled with soldiers were deployed to Izombe community to kill villagers and burn their houses.

Blueprint gathered that crisis started when two youth groups in the area had problem over oil in Aboshi, an oil producing community, and one of the groups invited the Army.

“When the soldiers came, they ordered the members of the other group to lie down. One of them decided not to lie down but tried to run away. This made the soldiers to open fire at him and he died”, an eye witness disclosed.

“After killing him, they (soldiers) drove to the palace of the traditional ruler and hid themselves. Irked by their action, the youth of the community mobilzed themselves and went to the Eze’s Palace to demand for the release of the killer soldiers.

“The youth later forced them out, disarmed, killed and burnt the two vehicles they came with and took over their guns. Later, the information on the mob action by the youth got to the Army authority, and they mobilize soldiers with more than ten Hillux vans to Izombe where they killed villagers and burnt houses, not minding whether they were involved in killing their men or not”, the eye witness further narrated.

Our correspondent gathered that right now the community has been deserted for the fear of more killings by soldiers.