Some of the survivors of last week’s massacre of eleven persons of Ebonyi State indigenes in Anambra State, have relived their experiences during the mayhem.

They thanked God for preserving their lives.

Speaking under anonymity for fear of being hunted down by the assailants, the survivors likened the incident to what you see in horror films.

They spoke when the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the November 8 election, Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu, of the Ikukuoma Foundation, visited them in the hospital.

Still afraid for their lives, while speaking with The Nation, they said they survived through the act of God.

It will be recalled that the incident happened at Ogboji Community, Orumba South Local Government Area, and was allegedly perpetrated by members of the proscribed Biafran agitators.

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

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

The Foundation gave bags of rice, tins of tomatoes, vegetable oils and big cash for their families

The survivors, many of them injured and still receiving treatments.

Odom, while narrating the incident, said that initially they didn’t suspect anything when the vehicles arrived at the scene, adding, ” suddenly, the occupants of the cars, about 10 in number, all hooded , alighted, opened the compound gate and raced to the meeting point.

“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 went ahead to ask about the chairman. Nobody said anything.

“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 seriously wounded as the bullet flew through my head with blood oozing. He took me for 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 in the leg as he escaped, but some of our members were not so lucky.

“In the ensuing milieu, and as the shootings ended, 11 people lost their lives and eight 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 suspects.

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

A wife of one of the victims gave birth to a baby barely seven days after her husband’s gruesome murder.

However, Tony Ezekwelu, who led the foundation team, described it as an unfortunate situation.

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

He 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.

“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 checkpoints on the road to this place without being detected,” he said. (The Nation)