Hoodlums Attack Catechist, Gardener With Machetes In Anambra
Some hoodlums have attacked the St. Peter’s Anglican Church, Aguleri, in the Anambra East Local Government Area of Anambra State.
We gathered the incident occurred in the early hours of Saturday.
A source, who pleaded anonymity, told our correspondent that the bandits got into the church compound around 3am and unleashed terror on some of the residents.
The source said, “Information has it that the hoodlums neither came to steal nor to dispossess the residents of their belongings, but their mission was to capture and kill the resident priest, whom they couldn’t get due to their inability to find their way to his apartment upstairs.
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“They had placed a ladder on the wall of the one-storey building to achieve their set target. The church teacher (Catechist), Christopher Chukwu, who had come out in the dead of the night to ease himself, saw strange torchlight on the church premises.
“He (Chukwu) proceeded to the direction of the light to ascertain what it was only for the hoodlums to pounce on him, dealing him several machete blows.’’
“His cry for help alerted the Parish Priest, Akachukwu Ikedilo, and the gardener, Matthew Nwude. The gardener suffered the same fate as the catechist in the hands of the hoodlums.”
Speaking with journalists, Rev. Ikedilo described the incident as horrifying.
“The miscreants attacked them with machetes and axes. The church teacher and gardener were inflicted with severe injuries and left in a pool of their own blood,” he stated.
The President-General of the community, Hipo Onwuegbuke, said he got a distress call around 3.45am from someone who lived close to the church that the place was under siege.
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“I immediately alerted the police and local vigilantes, who went to the church premises. Unfortunately, the miscreants had escaped through a neighbouring community,” Onwuegbuke stated.
He said the police and the local vigilantes saw the ladder with which the hoodlums wanted to climb into the parish priest’s apartment.
Onwuegbuke added, “What I was told was that the catechist, who lives downstairs, came out to ease himself and saw two men. He went there and asked what they were doing and they attacked him.”
“The man is still in hospital receiving treatment as we speak now. We have gone to the police and made statements, and the Bishop of the diocese knows about the development.”
He disagreed with a statement by the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Haruna Mohammed, that the incident was a case of armed robbery.
Mohammed had earlier said in a statement issued after the incident that the intruders were on an armed robbery operation.
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