Cultists stormed a football viewing centre in Abakaliki, Nigeria during the Spanish League’s El Clasico match between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona on Sunday night, critically injuring a student – local media reports.
The viewing centre, located in the Onuebonyi area of the town, was full of supporters for the famous mid-April fixture.
Witnesses of the attack have likened the incident to that of a scene from a “Hollywood movie”.
John Otubo, who had come to watch the game, noted that the attackers carried a number of lethal arms.
“I watched them brandish two short guns, axes and knives as they simply went for their target, dragged him out and started using the weapons on him.
“No one can explain why they did not shoot him as they concentrated on him without attacking any other person or shooting sporadically to elicit stray-bullet incidences,” he said.
The attackers were said to have entered the centre at around 7:30 pm local time, midway into the match’s first half. Instead of striking at first-entry, the assailants sat down to watch the end of the first half.
The attackers then revealed their weapons to the audience and assaulted, seemingly unprovoked, a second year student of the Ebonyi State University, who was sitting with his friends in the middle of the audience – he was left with life-threatening injuries.
“I and other sympathisers met him motionless and in his pool of blood with the severe cuts on different parts of his body inflicted by the attackers,” Otubo added.
“We immediately took him to a hospital which I cannot disclose presently as doctors said his condition was critical.”
Several viewers were injured during the resulting stampede.
Mr Mark Onu, National President of Akubaraoha Youth Assembly, who is also the governor’s Senior Technical Assistant on Youth Mobilisation and Empowerment, urged youths to collaborate with security agencies in the state to work out the reasoning behind the attack.
