Police hunt killers of two Delta youths

The Delta State Police Command has assured residents of Mosogar and Oghara communities in Ethiope West Local Government Area, that the command is investigating the incident that led to the mob killing of two youths said to be suspected kidnappers.

PUNCH Metro gathered that the mob had last Thursday in Mosogar whisked away, beaten and set ablaze the two youths.

The Police Public Relations Officer for the Delta State Command, SP Bright Edafe, while speaking with journalists in Warri on Wednesday, noted that “the police are on the trail of the vigilante leader and community leader who masterminded the mob action.”

According to the police spokesman, “Some lawless vigilante personnel from Mosogar had gone to a community in Oghara and abducted three persons, claiming they were kidnappers but one of the boys escaped and was rescued after running to a nearby police station.”

The PPRO said a mob in Mosogar overpowered the vigilante and set ablaze the other two persons.

He said, “We are currently on the trail of the vigilante leader as well as the community leader who masterminded that act to see that they are brought to justice.

“We are using this opportunity to call on residents in the area to remain calm and we guarantee them that justice must be served.”

Meanwhile, a socio-cultural organisation in Delta State, Oghara Elite Forum, has stoutly condemned the extrajudicial killing of the two youths in the community just as it demanded swift intervention of the security agencies “to avert the possible breakdown of law and order between the Oghara and nearby Mosogar Kingdoms.”

It also urged the Chairman of Ethiope West Local Government Area, Christian Onogba, “to quickly set a machinery in motion and judiciously revisit the matter to calm already frayed nerves.”

The organisation, in a statement signed by its President-General, Dr Jacob Ighere, at the end of its extraordinary meeting held in Oghara, maintained that “the manner Mosogar youths raided Ijomi community in Oghara Kingdom, forcefully whisked the deceased suspects to Mosogar and allegedly slaughtered them extrajudiciously was condemnable.”

It then appealed to the Delta State Commissioner of Police and the special agencies of the State Government vested with peace and conflict resolution to ensure justice in the matter “without delay before it snowballs into communal war.”