- Community Has Lost 30 Kinsmen To Drug War
The horror unleashed on worshippers last Sunday at St. Phillip’s Catholic Church, Ozubulu in Ekwusigo Local Government Area of Anambra State has unraveled how kinsmen from the mourning community where 12 victims were declared to have died by the police, have for years controlled a powerful drug cartel in South Africa.
The New Diplomat learnt drug barons from Ozubulu community, according to a source allegedly control about 60 percent of wholesale drug sales in South Africa.
The source alleged that High Chief Aloysius Nnamdi Ikegwuonwu, also known as Bishop, who built the church where the lone gunman shot worshippers, is at the centre of the crisis and controlled a cartel in SANS, Hillbrow/Berea, Johannesburg.
The attempt by Ikegwuonwu to have a firm grip of the drug cartel in SANS, an area popular for illicit drug trade in Johannesburg, thereby warding off the influence of some of his kinsmen in the area whom he brought in from Nigeria to help him manage the business, has led to series of killings in South Africa, as fellow kinsmen also try to have a stronghold of the area for their business.
According to another source from Ozubulu, more than 30 sons of the community have died in South Africa as a result of the raging war.
However, a former Commissioner of Health in Anambra State, Professor Linus Amobi Ilika who also hails from Ozubulu told INDEPENDENT that there had been frequent killings of indigenes of Ozubulu community living in South Africa and their corpses conveyed home for burial before the shooting of worshippers at St. Phillip’s Catholic Church, which he described as an abomination against the land.
Though, Ilika said Ikegwuonwu has not been charged or arrested for any drug related offence, but he confirmed that, “There had been shootings in South Africa and they bring down the corpses of our people living in South Africa. The person who built the church resides in South Africa. There is likely to be dispute and struggle among them but I cannot say exactly what the issues are.
“But for whatever it is there is no single justification for assassinations and invasion of a place of worship and committing of such mass killing of innocent worshipers in a place of worship”.
Ilika described the shooting as an abomination of the land of Ozubulu and appealed to people to join in prayers of atonement and reparation to God for the heinous sin and sacrilege.
2016 was said to be the worst year for Ozubulu people in South Africa, as over 30 drug barons were said to have been killed.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police in Anambra, Garba Umar, has said that some suspects have been arrested in connection with Sunday’s killings at St. Philips Catholic Church, Ozubulu, just as Acting President Yemi Osinbajo vowed to get to the root of the killings.
Osinbajo in series of tweets on Monday, said he has been in constant touch with the state governor, Willie Obiano and has been receiving regular updates on the status of investigations regarding the atrocious and mindless acts of violence on Sunday at the St. Phillip’s Catholic Church, Ozubulu in Anambra State.
He said police authorities and other security agencies have also swung into action to unravel the mystery behind the killings.
