Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
The Benue State police command on Thursday confirmed the killing of a 70-year-old man by gunmen in Ugbokolo town, Okpokwu Local Government Area of the state.
According to the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Moses Yamu, the deceased was attacked on Wednesday night in his home by three assailants whose identities were yet to be ascertained.
Yamu who spoke in a telephone chat with our correspondent, disclosed that the police had already commenced investigations into the killing.
On the Christmas-day killing of one Mr. Iorwuese Myaga, father of seven in Logo Local Government Area of the state, Yamu said the DPO in charge of Logo on Thursday confirmed to him that the council chairman, Richard Nyajo, reported the case.
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“The DPO told me that the case was reported to him by the council chairman but our men were not at the scene where the corpse was recovered or buried.”
Yamu disclosed that four suspected cultists were on Boxing Day arrested in Otukpo area of the state following intelligence information received that some persons belonging to the Red Skin cult had concluded arrangements to initiate their new members into the fraternity.
He said security operatives swiftly swung into action and raided the venue of the initiation ceremony on Wednesday night while the event was ongoing, adding that four suspects were apprehended while the others escaped.
He said items recovered from the suspected cultists included: one locally-made pistol, two live cartridges, 60 wraps of dry leaves suspected to be Indian hemp and a big bottle of dry gin.
Yamu, however, dispelled the rumour circulating in Otukpo town that one person was allegedly killed by suspected cultists on the same day, saying that the police was neither aware of any such killing nor recover any body from the area.
“We can’t confirm any killing in Otukpo. Our men in the area actually received an SOS call that there was shooting at a particular street in Otukpo but when they got there, nobody was found to tell us anything we needed to know; and no corpse was found as well,” Yamu said.