Obinna Odogwu, Awka

Six houses have been razed in Allah/Onugwa in Olumbanasa, Anambra West Local Government Area of Anambra State following a renewed hostility between it and Odekpe village  last Saturday.

This came less than three weeks after a bloody clash between the two villages reportedly left seven persons dead and about 153 houses razed in the battle that lasted for more than 24 hours.

A resident of Allah/Onugwa village, Mr Uzor Anthony, alleged that warlords suspected to have operated from Odekpe invaded their village and wreaked havoc.

“They came near our primary school in the morning and started shouting. Our people kept quiet, nobody confronted them. They later went back. In the evening around 5pm, they came back again.

“Our people went to our primary school to stop  them not knowing that they had divided themselves in groups. Some moved in from the front, some went to the back and invaded our community through the bush.

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“They started burning the remaining houses; so our people ran away.

“They pursued us to a neighbouring village  we ran to for safety. That was what happened. Nobody was killed”, he narrated.

Uzor, however, alleged that throughout the period the battle lasted, policemen did not come to their village to quell the situation; lamenting, however, that his people had fled to their neighbouring Innoma community.

Efforts to get reaction from a youth leader in Odekpe village, Mr Ernest Udoba, who had narrated to Daily Sun their community’s side of the story after the last clash proved abortive as he did not pick calls to his phone. He did not also return same as at the time of filing this report.

Anambra  state Police Public Relations Officer ,SP Haruna Mohammed,  said the police command has not received information about any fresh crisis between the two villages.