For Jacob Okoro, an Ezillo indigene, his survival of the early morning attack is miracle. But he would have wished he joined those massacred in the attack that left about 52 persons dead. Out of 32 members of his family, only Jacob and two others escaped. He told newsmen that it was the grace of God that he is alive “because I cannot really say how I escaped death. As I’m talking with you, I have lost everything, and our compound that had about 32 persons, only three persons out of the number escaped the bullets of the gunmen. When we ran out of the house, we saw some young men and we were thinking that they were also running for safety not knowing that they were the gunmen. As you run towards them, they will just kill you immediately.”
The New Year eve attack in the renewed hostilities between the people of Ezza and their Ezillo neighbours in Ishielu local government area of Ebonyi State has added another dimension in the crisis, which started on May 10, 2008, over destruction of a telephone booth at the Ezillo market square. There were sad stories of family members who jumped into their vehicles to run for safety only to be blocked on the way and shot dead by the hoodlums, who were alleged to be a gang of hired killers.
An eyewitness, Ikechukwu Eze, told newsmen that the gunmen invaded the community around 5 a.m. with an unidentified vehicle. He said they divided themselves into groups. The first attack was directed at the Ezillo police station, while those stationed at the Afor Ezillo market square opened fire on the people. Eze said villagers, who were woken up from their sleep by the sound of gunshots, had attempted to run to the bush for safety but were felled down by a gang of the hoodlums, who laid ambush nearby. A divisional crime officer, DCO, in charge of the police station in Ezillo was killed in the attack. Jacob, who lost members of his family, said they ran out from the house and were heading into the bush when some of them were hit by bullets. This magazine gathered that the gunmen also killed donkeys, burnt down the Afor Ezillo Market, filling stations and houses.
Ebonyi State governor, Chief Martin Elechi, who visited the area, described the incident as regrettable and unfortunate. The Assistant Inspector General of Police, AIG, in charge of the zone said the Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Ringim has approved the redeployment of mobile policemen from Cross River, Rivers and Akwa Ibom States to curtail further violence. 
For three years, mobile policemen and a special squad from Kaduna and Adamawa States were deployed to patrol the crisis area following attacks on commuters along Abakaliki/Enugu road. The squad was withdrawn barely few months before the latest attack.
Since the Ezza/Ezillo community crisis erupted in May 2008, the state government had come up with some measures to bring peace to the area. But most of these measures were rejected by the feuding communities. The peace committee comprised traditional rulers and government officials inaugurated by the state government had recommended that the Ezza clan in Ezillo be relocated to Eguachara, from  where they were said to have migrated to Ezillo. The state government accepted this recommendation but the Ezza-Ezillo people rejected the government white paper, claiming that the recommendation was manipulated by politicians of Ezillo origin, who have influence in government. They also argued that Eguachara is a barren land without basic facilities like schools, churches, road, water, etc to sustain life. To force them to abandon their developed businesses and contributions to the development of Ezillo town, which they regard as their ancestral land, to Eguachara is inhuman.
But Chief Fidelis Mbam, the secretary to the Ebonyi State government, SSG, told this magazine that the state government would have provided infrastructural development in Eguachara if the people had accepted the government white paper. 
There are fears of a reprisal attack by Ezillo people, who were at the receiving end during the December 31 mayhem.

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