Gunmen reportedly laid an ambush in the early hours of Monday and shot dead an Oruku indigene identified as Dennis Ike in Nkanu East local government area of Enugu State.
The attacker said to be sponsored by one of the opposing camps also burnt a residential building belonging to another indigene of the community, Okechukwu Ukeh.
According to The Nation, the incident followed a protracted communal crisis between Oruku and the neighbouring Umuode community in Nkanu East local government area of Enugu State.
While the Enugu State Government had succeeded in settling the dispute by demarcating the contentious boundary as recommended by a Judicial Panel of Enquiry, some aggrieved members of Oruku, opposed to the terms of settlement with Umuode, reportedly continued to foment trouble in their community.
The aforementioned publication reported that several lives and property had been lost to the conflict as some young men believed to have been armed by some powerful personalities in Oruku continued to attack their kinsmen allegedly marked for elimination for agreeing to settle the dispute with their Umuode neighbours.
An eyewitness said that the latest incident occurred on Monday at about 6 am when the sound of continuous gunshots woke the residents from their sleep.
The deceased was said to be riding on his motorbike from his residence for the day’s business when he was gunned down by the assailants, who also burnt his motorcycle and his corpse.
The source said: “We were woken up again this morning by the heavy sound of gunfire which forced many residents to remain indoors for several hours before security operatives arrived in the community. We came out only to see the corpse of the young man and his burnt motorcycle.
“The gunmen fled before the policemen arrived”.
The State Police spokesman Daniel Ndukwe, could not be reached for comments on the incident as at the time of filling this report.
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