- Says Our Son Innocent
By Paul Egede. Agbor.
The family of a 37 years old man allegedly killed by members of a vigilante group on Sunday, July 14 in Agbor, headquarters of Ika South Local Government Area, Delta State, has cried out to government, human rights groups and concerned individuals to help get justice for their late son, Mr Humphrey Odia.
Speaking on behalf of the Odia family, an elder brother of the deceased, Mr Festus Hamilton Odia said that Humphrey was innocent and that he did not confront members of the vigilante group that came to his house to kill him.
His words,” I was in my house on that fateful Sunday afternoon when I received information about the quarrel between a vigilante member and my brother, Humphrey. The quarrel also involved Humphrey’s friends who were with him when the said vigilante guy confronted them at Queen Street by Okunbor Street. This later generated into a fight and the vigilante guy ran into his girlfriend’s apartment in the area and grabbed a cutlass but was not able to use it.
“After the confrontation, Humphrey and his friends returned to our house at Queen by Nmudein Street Lane. Shortly after their return, a vigilante group led by one Friday arrived the place with a Sienna Bus and started chasing Humphrey’s friends with cutlass and gun.
They arrested two of the boys and also, went ahead to attack Humphrey in his house. In the process, one of the vigilante members shot Humphrey on his neck at a closed range. Before, I could struggle out of my room because I have a challenge with one of my legs, to rescue the situation, Friday and his boys have killed Humphrey.
“Humphrey is not married and he was not a thief. We are yet to know the reason why he was killed by Friday-led vigilante group. They killed him, drag his lifeless body into their Sienna Bus and zoomed off to Agbor Police Station. I rushed to the police station, unfortunately, nobody listened to me.
Even till this moment, Police did not come to our house to investigate what happened. They feel satisfied working with the fake story from Friday. Humphrey was killed like a fowl; he was not given any opportunity to explain himself. We want justice to prevail on this issue. We are appealing to government, human rights groups and concerned individuals to come to our aide.
Meanwhile, efforts to reach Friday for his own story, at the time this report was being filed was not fruitful as his telephone line was switched off.
This second killing by the vigilante group in Agbor happened at exactly one month after the first person, Mr Joseph Philip, 29 years old was killed by men of Anioma Security Watch on Sunday 16th June, 2024.
