OZUBULU ATTACK :THE TRAGEDY OF FOLLOWING THE WRONG TRAIL.

Many people have never seen a person being shot dead before, at least not in real life. But most have seen such countless times in movies. Emotions are hardly attached to such deaths, it's part of the movie plot after all. We have heard countless news reports about gun attacks,sadly these reports are not rare in our world today.

Such reports send chills down the spine. To think that the world is no longer safe enough that people are gunned down and heaven does not fall. In this year alone, news of gun attacks have made international headline multiple times.

On Sunday, such reports "came home". "Chills" do not describe the emotion many people felt and still feel. In our own land, our own people are massacred, even worse, they were massacred in the house of the Lord.

Everything cannot be captured in the few hours a movie lasts, nor the few seconds a news report is aired. The grief family members of victims feel cannot be captured adequately in movies or in the news. Most times, they are not even captured at all. This is a very hard time for the people of Ozubulu, our people. This grief is not easy to bear. Families affected would remember that day for the rest of their lives.

Beyond the grief, many questions beg answers. Who were behind the killing? What was their motive? Did they have a particular target? and many more questions. A lot of things have been said.

The Police made their findings and came up with a report. People in some quarters queried that it came up too soon. The Police reported that the massacre was a fall-out of a fight between two drug lords. One lord was targeted to be killed and his assailants trailed him to the village and targeted to kill him during the morning mass. Come to think of it, people let down their guard during worship. That makes it easier to catch a target with less resistance than at his home or any other public place. Incidentally, the target was not spotted and the gunmen opened fire at the worshippers.

Further details have it that this drug war has been going on for the last two years. This brings me to the words of the Police critics who said the police investigation and report came too quickly. Going by this, it is plausible that the Police built their information from an investigation that began long before the morning mass attack. That is to say that this is not a fresh case, and the Sunday incident just added more events to the case file.

But not everyone buys this report. Like I already stated earlier, some people said it came too quickly, unlike the Nigerian Police that conduct investigations for donkey years. That there is more that mets the eye than a drug war tale. They claim that for one, hired assassins do not go about killing "non-targets". That an eye witness account reported that the gunmen wore an army camouflage and spoke in a language that was not Igbo. That the attack must have been carried out by Fulani herdsmen.

Indeed, fulani herdsmen have attacked communities in the past, both in Igbo land and other places. So it's "understandable" that they may have struck again. But the possession and use of army camouflage is not the exclusive reserve of any group. Any attacker can choose to wear such so they will pass off as military men and be allowed easy movement. As people would just say they are military men. The eye witness noted that the attackers spoke a language that was not Igbo. Nigeria alone has 520 different language her citizens speak. One thing about language is that one does not recognize a language they do not understand. If you are on a line in a bank for instance, and people are discussing in a language you don't understand, you would hardly make out the exact language they are speaking.

Again there is no code among hired killers not to kill "non-targets". An assassin can kill dozens of people in his quest to kill just one person.

Just as the police report was discredited on some grounds, many things discredits the theory that the attack was carried out by Fulanis as well.

One tragedy about following the wrong tail is that "the right tail" gets away. Countless bomb and gun attacks are reported almost everyday in Nigeria. The Ozubulu attack could just have been one of them. If we go by this, we ignore the reality of drug barons, drug trade and possible drug war.

Drug business is the new blood money. Drug trade is lucrative worldwide. It is illicit and those that get caught trading on it face stern consequences. Some are sentenced to death or life in prison. But if you succeed, well let's just say you become rich enough that you can single handedly build three churches for your community alone.

Our boys or should I say men go great lengths to make money. At least drug trade save people the dilemma of using their father or mother for blood rituals. Instead, the parents stay alive to "enjoy the fruits of their labour". Some travel overseas and within a short period of time, make surplus wealth and begin to live lavish life styles. But these things invariably come with consequences that are usually not easy to face. Even watching movies can tell you that drug wars are usually bloody.

True, there are legitimate businesses that return good profits, but businesses are built and they hardly become so success so suddenly.

If the Fulani herdsmen attack theory holds up, it sweeps all these realities under the carpet.

On the other hand, if the official Police report is to hold, and in contrary, indeed it was a Fulani herdsmen attack, and nothing is being done about it. If it is so, we should keep in mind that a few people, not the Hausa/Fulani race are behind the attack. These particular individuals should be identified and dealt with accordingly. It is not a time to say it is an Hausa against Igbo attack. There is enough tribal tension already in the country, we should not heighten it further.

People are nudging the Police to do well and bring the culprits to book. Indeed they should. But we should keep in mind that this is Nigeria. Bola Ige, an Attorney-General of the Federation at that time was murdered in his own home. Till today, the culprits have not been found. An Attorney-General!!! I am not clearing grounds for the Police to turn up empty handed, but we must keep it in mind that some cases remain unresolved all over the world, talk more of the Nigeria we know.