Armed team of soldiers and policemen have cordoned off the Abakaliki-Enugu expressway at the Ezillo axis in Ebonyi State, in search of perpetrators of last weekend's mayhem, which claimed several lives and the burning of over two hundred houses in the area.

According to the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Dr. Onyekachi Eni, the state governor's directives that everything should be done to bring to book, perpetrators of the crisis, informed the presence of armed security men in the area.

According to eyewitness account, the incident was sparked off by a misunderstanding between one Chukwu Agbo, an Ezillo man and his Ezza business neighbour at Ishimkpuma market, over the location of a makeshift shop for GSM phone booth.

The resultant argument led to open confrontation that later assumed tribal dimension.

Two staff of the Ebonyi Micro Water Scheme, Ezillo, became victims with one of them stabbed in the stomach, while the other had his hand chopped off.

When our reporter visited the area yesterday, only a few women could be seen moving their belongings from the area as the men folk were said to have fled the area.

Burnt houses and shops are now occupied by security personnel, who are conducting stop and search operation, thus, seriously inhibiting free flow of traffic on the busy highway.