The victim identified as Eze Patrick Okechukwu,
had reportedly been attacked a few days after he returned from Jigawa
State, where he had carried out his one year mandatory national
service.
The reports reveal that over 20 people had died in the gruesome attack, leaving a number of their victims, including Okechukwu, bedridden from gunshot and machete wounds.
Sunday
Sun reports that Okechukwu who is a graduate of Geology and Mining from
the Enugu State University (ESUT) had ben in his father’s house when
the assailants had walked into their home with machetes and guns.
The
victim had reportedly dashed into a nearby bush but had been followed
by the attackers who went on to attack him with swords, cutting his
hands, head, and legs, leaving him for dead.
Following a visit by Sunday Sun correspondents
at the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Enugu, where Okechukwu had been
referred for treatment, he had been seen lying in pains, with bandages
wrapped all over his body while looking frail and helpless.
Speaking during the interview with Sunday Sun, Okechukwu said:
“It was a horrible experience. I saw the face of death. They cut me like wood and left when they thought I had died.”
Efforts
to engage him in further conversation had been futile as talking was
visibly painful for him, but his mother and other relatives had gone on
to recount the experience.
Speaking to the correspondents, Okechukwu's mother said:
“They
almost killed my son. Only God saved him. He was chased into the bush
where they overpowered him and descended on him with machetes on his
head, hands, legs and back. It was at the same spot that they killed
three persons, including a 70-year-old man. They thought my son was dead
and left him. Later, my son was rescued and put in a wheelbarrow from
the bush to the main road. He was rushed to Nsukka in a pool of blood.”
The
reports further reveal that the herdsmen had spared women and children
during the attack, as one of the women who had come face to face with
the herdsmen revealed to the Sunday Sun that the attackers had ordered her back to her house with the assurance that they would not hurt women and children.
She
added that the assailants had been about 15 in number, explaining that
about five of them had been herdsmen, while others had looked robust.
A
reliable source also reveals that the herdsmen had gone into the
premises of St Marys Catholic Church, but upon the discovery that the
people found in the church at the time had been mostly women, they had
vandalized the windows and other items, leaving the women unharmed
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