Gunmen have beheaded a yet-to-be-identified man, after killing him at a drinking joint in Aba, Abia State.

The unknown gunmen numbering about four were said to have stormed the drinking joint along Georges Street by St. Michael’s road junction in a tricycle and shot the deceased thrice, beheaded him with a machete and fled the scene.

Eyewitnesses told Vanguard that the incident caused panic in the area as people scampered to safety, leaving their drinks and vehicles as well as the deceased in a pool of blood.

Though the reason for the killing was yet to be ascertained, sources have attributed it to cult violence.

A business owner along St. Michaels road, said; “The drinking joint was filled with people enjoying themselves until there was a gunshot. Nobody knew where it came from, but everybody scampered to safety. When I returned to close my shop, I saw a man lying in a pool of blood and they cut off his head. The police later came and took the corpse away.”

Vanguard gathered that the deceased had received a telephone call from someone whom he directed to the drinking joint. Few minutes after the call, the gunmen arrived in a tricycle and shot him thrice and cut off his head. It was also said that the gunmen fired sporadic shots as they left the area.

Efforts to get the reaction of the Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Abia State Command, SP Geoffrey Ogbonna, was unsuccessful, as he neither responded to calls nor a message placed on his handset as at the time of filing this report.

However, a top police officer at the Aba Area Command confirmed the incident, adding that the corpse had been deposited at an undisclosed mortuary in the city.