The Nigerian military attacked Amangwu, Elu and Amaekpu communities in Ohafia local government Area of Abia State, where they destroyed homes and properties.
Few civilians were also arrested and killed in the attack which lasted from Friday evening to Saturday June 12, 2021.
Residents told Gazette Africa that the trouble started when men of the Nigerian army stormed the village to arrest a spiritual doctor called “Ngworo”, but his assistants resisted them.
“They came to arrest a spiritual doctor known as Ngworo but his assistants overpowered them and they fled,” said a resident of the town.
He said the soldiers returned to their barracks and regrouped, but encountered more resistance from the spiritualist and other unidentified people who engaged them in a fierce shootout.
“Some soldiers died in the shooting,” said Igwe, another source who said the fighting lasted until Saturday morning.
Gazette Africa gathered that the spiritualist and the unidentified men who engaged the soldiers in a shootout retreated to a forest “but the soldiers who refused to follow them into the forest turned around and attacked civilians in the village.
“The soldiers burned down houses, destroyed property and arrested innocent people,” said another resident.
Meanwhile, Ifenna Aja said the soldiers who attacked the villages claimed they were looking for members of the Eastern Security Network (ESN), a local vigilante group that is fighting the violent Fulani herders in the eastern part of the country.
“The soldiers said they were looking for ESN, but our community chief told them that the ESN men are not here in our community because our community is not a forest where they stay,” he said said.
“After we thought they were gone, they started burning houses and shooting sporadically”.