Anambra Mass Shooting Survivors, Families Cry Out, As Ukachukwu Comes To The Rescue

Ukachukwu visits the survivors, renders material and financial help

The survivors of the recent mass murder of no fewer than eleven, on June 30, 2025, at Ogboji in Orumba South council of Anambra State, by a group of unidentified gunmen have extolled the public spirit and kind humane heart and disposition of Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu, the Anambra State governorship flag bearer and candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Prince Ukachukwu had, on July 10, visited and offered them succour and a shoulder to cry on.

The APC flagbearer, while visiting those that are hospitalized, including the survivors and families of the unfortunate citizens who lost their lives in the incident, urged them to take solace despite the tragedy.

He lamented the apparent worsening security situation in the State.

Ukachukwu was represented by top officers of Ikukuoma Foundation (IF) led by Hon (Engr) Tony Ezekwelu a former Majority Leader in Anambra State Assembly, and Chief Arinzechukwu Awogu, a former Ogbaru Local Government chairman.

He gave all citizens of the state hope, saying that voting APC in the November 8, 2025, governorship poll is all they need to do.

This, he said, will ensure that a better life and comprehensive security of lives and prosperity will become common place in every nook and cranny of Anambra State.

The apparent premeditated attack was alleged to be targeted on some indigenes of Ebonyi State living in and around Ogboji who came for their regular monthly meeting on Sunday, June 30, 2025.

According to insider source it was a spillover grudge borne by some members against other unsuspecting members until it spilt over that unfortunate afternoon.

An eye witness and member of meeting gave a vivid account of what transpired that led to the killing of 11 of their kinsmen and injuring 8 others.

Speaking in concert with other Ebonyi citizens during the visit, Mr. Augustine Odom, Chairman of Ebonyi Indigenous Welfare Association, Ogboji chapter, told the Foundation that on the fateful day, about 30 out of the 50-member group were in a house in the community.

They reportedly gathered for their monthly meeting, which holds in the last week of every month, when the unfortunate incident occurred.

Briefing them, “Ikukuoma Foundation” (IF), a humanitarian organization established by Ukachukwu as a vehicle he uses for touching those in need in the society, consoled the victims and their representatives.

IF commiserated and sympathized with them over the unfortunate incident.

The victims and representatives gathered at the palace of High Chief, Dr. Kay Anyachor, the Traditional Prime Minister (Onowu) of Ogboji, to receive members of the Foundation.

The team brought bags of rice, tins of vegetable oil and large cash they didn’t disclose its value for families of the victims to assist them to take care of themselves and their children.

Those present included the survivors, many of them injured and still receiving treatments, their wives, children and those the deceased left behind to mourn them.

Odom, while narrating the incident, said that meetings of Ebonyi indigenes in the area had existed for over 40 years now.

He noted that he met it when he came to the community about 20 years ago and registered as a member and that, at times, it lasts till 7pm in evening.

Odom, meanwhile, absolved his members of anything untoward amidst.

According to him, the 30 of them who attended the meeting had barely said the opening prayers, called the attendance register and gone to deliberate the agenda of the meeting topped by proposed discussions on an absentee member.

The said member had borrowed what he called a “small amount” from the association but reneged on repayment due date when they noticed two Siena SUV cars – one white and the other black approaching the gate of the compound where they were gathered.

He said that initially they didn’t suspect anything but that suddenly, the occupants of the cars, about 10 in number, all hooded, alighted, opened the compound gate and raced to the meeting point.

Odom narrates: “The first thing they did was to ask all of us to lie face down.

“They then accused us that the meeting was because of them and immediately asked about the chairman but no one responded.

“One of the assailants asked me to get up from the ground and asked if I was the chairman, to which I denied.

“He asked me to go back to my position just as one of them again commanded them to start shooting all of us since none of us knew our chairman.

“I tried to escape but one of them shot me and I fell down seriously wounded as the bullet flew through my head with blood oozing.

“He took me for the dead because he came close and examined me and left.

“We couldn’t see their faces. They were hooded with black clothes and spoke both Igbo and pidgin English.

“The Secretary was shot on the leg as he escaped but some of our members were not lucky.

“In the ensuing milieu and as the shootings ended, 11 people lost their lives and 8 others sustained various degrees of injuries.

“They were carrying pump action and AK-47 guns,” he said.

Odom disclosed that they moved the injured to a hospital in faraway Awka, to shake off any monitoring suspect.

The remains of the unfortunate ones were also removed away to undisclosed hospital where they were preserved in a morgue by sympathetic villagers.

He listed names of the dead to include Sunday Ogada, Ikechukwu Nwafor, Sunday Ofemi, Uche Alaego, Ebenezer Michael Nwaigbe, Clement Nwige, Nwaukwu Daniel, Ikechukwu Akam, Sunday Nwede, Ituma and Nwogbu.

Odom said that the victims were all married and bread winners of their various families.

He added that some of them were farmers, Keke Operators and Okada riders with children and other dependents.

It was gathered that Gloria, the wife of the slain Sunday Nwede who was present, gave birth to a baby barely seven days after her husband’s gruesome murder.

The Ikukuoma Foundation frowned at what they saw.

They condemned as “careless and frivolous” comments of Governor Charles Soludo trending on the internet, who claimed that his records show that 99.9% of kidnap and murder cases in the state had been traced to indigenes.

Odom had disclosed that, as part of aims and purposes of their meeting/organization, they investigated and discovered that some of their young men were involved in some misconduct and anti-social behavior.

It was also gathered that they had been reprimanded in previous meetings to desist from their evil ways or else be reported to security agencies for tarnishing the image of Ebonyi people as just kidnappers and armed robbers.

They regretted that the people in the meeting would do nothing because some of them were recruited into the state’s home land security outfit, “Udo Gachi”.

“There were altercations that day”, a source said during which these alleged gentlemen of the high way, none of who was in the June end meeting threatened that they should not report them to the state government or the police because it would amount to betraying their kinsmen .

They also requested, it was learnt that the records of the minutes of the meeting where it was agreed that they would be reported to the police be expunged from the book but were turned down.

“That was why when our chairman spoke he was afraid to say those things because he felt that his life was in danger and the lives of his family members too.

“That was why we were not happy that the state government rushed to say that the incident was as a result of a fight between Ebonyi people and that Ebonyi people in Anambra were killing themselves without investigating the matter.

“If they had investigated the matter, they would have discovered that the Ebonyi people who killed Ebonyi people were the bad ones they recruited into Udo Gachi and not the law-abiding residents”, he said.

However, Hon. Ezekwelu, who led the IF foundation team, told them the whole thing was an unfortunate development.

He said their Principal and APC governorship candidate in the November 8, polls Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu was deeply shocked and pained to learn about the inhumanity some people visited on their fellow humans.

Ezekwelu said that their principal condoled with them and described as despicable the aftermath of an evil decision that had decimated families and left in its trail widows and orphans.

He urged them to take heart while remembering also that there is never a thing that escapes God’s knowledge before it happens.

He prayed for the repose of the spirits of the dead and fortitude for the families they left behind to bear their loses.

“These demonic forces, the devils in human form that kill and main, God will punish them beyond measure”, he cursed, and called on the people to be vigilant, while urging the state commissioner of Police and his team to get to the root of the matter.

“We are worried that this happened.We are not known for this kind of thing.

“I wonder how people can pack guns in their vehicles and drive past many police check points on the road to this place without being dictated,” Ezekwelu said.

He thanked Ogboji people for their concerns and hospitality and being their brothers’ keepers during their trying times and extended the condolences of Prince Ukachukwu to the Government and people of Ebonyi State over the tragedy.

He added that he was pleased the Ebonyi Governor intervened early enough by seeking the cooperation of Anambra state government and security agencies in the state to ensure it didn’t escalate. .

“We want peace. It has to stop. Security of lives and property must remain sacrosanct”,he emphasized.

Also speaking, a member of the team, Dr. Arinze Awogu, stressed that their principal was moved to tears when he heard about the incident.

Hence, he first sent emissaries to the hospital to see the wounded where they were told that some of them had been discharged to go fend for their dependent families because they were bread winners.

“Our principal was pained that in a state like Anambra kidnappings and killings have become the order of the day such that people having a lawful meeting were mowed down gruesomely.

“He is pained that security of lives and property is zero in Anambra and wished that it didn’t happen.

“We all know that if there had been proactive security measures on ground this wouldn’t have happened even if it was perpetuated on Anambra soil by fellow Ebonyi citizens,” he said.

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