Delta State Police Command, on Sunday, said it has arrested five persons in connection with the killings by suspected herdsmen in Agadama, Avwon and Okugbe communities of Uwheru Kingdom, Ughelli North Local Government Area of the state.

The arrest came as sources from Ughelli Central Hospital mortuary told Vanguard that autopsy on the eight locals who were killed during the attack, had been completed with the report indicating how the victims were killed.

It would be recalled that the corpses of eight indigenes of the communities were exhumed and taken to Ughelli ‘A’ Division police station en-route Ughelli Central Hospital, following reported attacks on them in their farms by suspected herdsmen.

A staff working at the hospital’s morgue, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “The physical and medical examinations were done on all the eight corpses by the pathologist, who was specially sent to the hospital by the Federal Government to do the autopsy, following the alarm raised by Delta State government on the killings.

“He was drafted from the Federal Medical Centre, FMC, Asaba through the Federal Ministry of Health and it was confirmed that they all died from multiple gunshots from a rifle.”

Denying reports that Governor Ifeanyi Okowa had paid N900,000 for autopsy of the eight corpses, the source said: “Not a dime has been paid to the pathologist for the autopsy. He is not even after the money but needs the corpses to be removed from the mortuary because they have already started having an offensive odour in the mortuary environment.

“According to the autopsy report, the corpses were confirmed dead for close to a month without being embalmed. They were decomposing when they were brought in here to the mortuary on February 17. So you can imagine the level of decomposition that has already gone on the corpses.”

Contacted on why they were yet to take the remains of their loved ones for burial, chairman of Agadama community, Sunday Iniovogoma, who also confirmed the completion of the autopsy, said: “How are we going to carry them for burial when the government is yet to do anything over the matter? “

Is it to bury them that is the issue or to solve the matter of herdsmen that is on ground?”

Police arrest four suspects

On the arrest of the five suspects, a security source said the suspects who are from Patani council of the state, were found inside the Agadama bush where the herdsmen operate.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said upon their arrest inside the bush, they couldn’t give concrete information on their mission in the area and upon scrolling through their phones, the numbers of suspected herdsmen were found in them.

Confirming the arrest, the state Commissioner of Police, Hafiz Inuwa, while speaking with Vanguard, said investigation into the matter was still ongoing.

Muster will to stop killings in Urhoboland, UPU tells Buhari

Meanwhile, Urhobo Progress Union, UPU, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to muster the moral, practical and constitutional will to stop the criminal activities of armed herdsmen in Urhobo land. UPU President-General, Olorogun Moses Taiga, who made the call during a visit to Uwheru over the killings, also read the riot act to all herdsmen in the area, stating: “The lethal attacks and killings of our people by herdsmen will no longer be tolerated. There shall be no room for foreign invaders in Urhobo land.

“The Urhobo nation will never, ever surrender or cede an inch of her territory to any stranger. These suspected killer herdsmen must be stopped. In all of these, it is our hope that none of our people has actually participated in the sale and disposal of Urhobo land to criminal non-natives.” (Vanguard)

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