MEMBERS of an Oghara-based vigilance group in Ethiope West
Local Government Area, Delta State, tracking a group of kidnappers have shot
two rubber tappers, Messrs Raymond Dowe and Happy, working for a contract staff
of Pamol Rubber Company.
The vigilance group members, who were on a joint patrol with
the police, fired the duo on their way to the plantation on both arms and legs
at about 5a.m.
The incident has sparked a row between the vigilance group and
members of the community.
Their employer, Mr. Godwin Ogele, who took journalists to the
scene of the incident, showed them the tapping equipment, foodstuff and jerry
can of water carried by the two workers on the ill-fated day.
He said they made distress calls after the shooting and he
had to race down to the plantation to rush them to the Delta State University
Teaching Hospital, Oghara.
We identifiedourselves, begged, yet…
Speaking to reporters at the hospital, the victims said they
identified themselves and pleaded with the vigilante members, who refused to
listen to them.
A police source in Oghara said the shooting was not
deliberate, adding that people saw the kidnappers that abducted a prominent
woman in the area running into the bush, hence the pursuit.
The chair of the local government council, Mr. Solomon
Golley, is reportedly shouldering the victims’ medical bills.
Meanwhile, Vanguard learned that the joint team of police and
vigilance group members succeeded in arresting five suspected members of the
actual kidap gang later same day.
Credit: Vanguard
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