By Oluwayemi Davidson, Warri
Pandemonium erupted in Ekakpamre community, Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State Tuesday morning as a gang of yet to be identified gunmen suspected to be cultists killed a young man in the community.
It was gathered that the gunmen stormed the community in the wee hours of the day, at about 3:50am, and went straight to the residence of their target located in a compound near the police post in the community, and shot him dead.
The deceased said to be in his early thirties was identified simply as Ebeni.
One of our sources insisted that the murder of Ebeni was cult related saying he was mowed down over a rivalry clash between members of the Aye and Dominion confraternities in the area.
The gory incident sparked outrage in the community as youths spontaneously went on rampage destroying motorcycles and tricycles on sight.
The patrol van of a team of police officers deployed to calm the situation was also damaged by the irate mob when they reportedly learnt that a shot from the security team had hit one of the protesters.
In the ensuing hullaballo, schools and markets in the community were hurriedly shut down.
When contacted by journalists, the acting Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) for Delta State Command, DSP Edafe Bright confirmed the murder of the victim by suspected cultists.
The PPRO however denied police shooting anyone in the community.
He said, “From the information available to me, one person was killed in cult related activities. But it’s not true that the police shot anyone in the community. Kindly disregard that information”.