The Delta State Police Command has launched a manhunt for the vigilante leader and community leader who masterminded a mob action in Mosogar, Ethiope West Local Government Area of the state.
The youths, said to be from Oghara community, were beaten and hacked to d3ath before being set ablaze. One of the youths managed to escape.
Speaking with journalists in Warri on Wednesday, February 19, the spokesperson of the command, SP Bright Edafe, assured residents of Mosogar and Oghara communities that investigation is ongoing.
“The police are on the trail of the vigilante leader and community leader who masterminded the mob action,” the PPRO said.
“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.”
Edafe said a mob in Mosogar overpowered the vigilante and set ablaze the other two persons.
“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,” he added.
Meanwhile, a socio-cultural organization 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 organization, 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.