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Why lone gunman mowed down 8 worshippers in Anambra Catholic Church

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It was a bloody Sunday morning in Ozubulu in Ekwusigo Local Government Area of Anambra state, as a lone gunman stormed a Catholic Church in the area mowing down no less than 8 worshipers.

It was gathered that the act may have been an extension of a quarrel between two indigenes of the area living abroad.

The gunman who reportedly entered the church during the 6am mass, dressed in black, with a hood over his face, went straight to a particular worshipper and rained bullets on him.

He was said to have turned towards other worshippers and shot down about seven others while spraying bullets in different directions.

Confirming the attack in Awka, state Commissioner of Police, Mr Garba Umar, said that the remains of the dead had been deposited at Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital Nnewi, while the injured were taken to the hospital.

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According the Umar, preliminary investigations revealed that the attack was the handiwork of a native of the town.

He said, “From our findings, it is very clear that the person who carried out the attack must be an indigene of the area.

“We gathered that worshippers for 6 o’clock Sunday mass at St. Philip Ozobulu were in the service when a gunman dressed in black attire covering his face with a cap entered the church and moved straight to a particular direction and opened fire.

“The man after shooting at his targeted victims still went on a shooting spree, killing and wounding other worshippers,’’ he said.

He explained that the police concluded that it was the work of an indigene because the attacker was speaking undiluted Igbo language at the time he was firing at worshippers.

Umar said no arrest had been made, but the police gathered the attack was a fallout of a quarrel between two natives of Ozubulu residing overseas.

He described the act as sacrilegious, adding, it was wrong for the perpetrators to extend their quarrel into the church.

He stated, that such conduct shows the people behind the act do not fear God”, but that the police had launched a manhunt of those behind the act, even as he assured that everybody behind the act would be brought to justice.

 

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