Gunmen kill two vigilante members in Okpanam, near Asaba

Unidentified gunmen have shot dead two members of a vigilante group in Okpanam community, near Asaba.

A youth leader in Okpanam, Mr Cyril Nwokoro, who disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Asaba, said the incident happened on Wednesday night.

“One of our dependable vigilantes, popularly called Emeka Chosen, received a call at about 9. 25 p.m. last night that someone had been kidnapped.

“So, following the call, he mobilised and took two other vigilante members along with him and they went there on a motorcycle.

“When they got to the area, the bush path behind Customs checkpoint, along the Asaba-Benin expressway, unknown to them , the killers laid ambush for them.

“As they rode into the bush path, the gunmen shot at them, and the bullet hit Emeka and one of his colleagues on the bike, while the bike rider managed to crawl into the bush.

“It was the bike rider who also sustained bullet wound that managed to make an emergency call to other vigilante members that same night,” he said.

Nwokoro disclosed that the corpses of Emeka and his colleague had since been retrieved and deposited at a morgue.

When contacted, the Spokesperson of the Police Command in Delta, DSP Onome Onovwakpoyeya, confirmed the incident.

“The information we got is that someone was kidnapped, and the vigilante group in Okpanam were alerted and they pursued the kidnappers.

“But because they were not armed, the kidnappers laid ambush for them and shot two of them dead,” Onovwakpoyeya said.

(NAN)