Slain victims of herdsmen’s attacks buried amid tears in Delta

About one month after, victims of herdsmen attacks in Uwheru Kingdom in Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State were, on Thursday, interred in a mass grave.

It will be recalled that the victims, 10 in number, were gruesomely murdered by AK47-carrying suspected Fulani herdsmen in their farms.

The funeral, held in Agadama, one of the communities in Uwheru Kingdom that was mostly affected by the herdsmen attacks, was held amid tears and heavy hearts.

Corpses of the victims, it will be recalled, were early in February exhumed by locals and security agencies from shallow graves in the forest of Uwheru communities where they were hurriedly interred by the marauders.

The exhumation was to ascertain the actual nature of their untimely deaths through an autopsy which was conducted at the Ughelli Central Hospital where it has been confirmed that the victims were killed by herdsmen.

The victims were identified as Dennis Itoje, Philip Emesharueke, Arhiakpore Steven, Oghenekparobo Emmanuel, Andrew Itiroghene Useh and Ochuko Ovwanre.

Others were Samson Coach Ogheneoruese, Kotor Boy, Abura Ejuweyere and Freeborn Isreal.

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The remains of the deceased were brought from the morgue of the Ughelli Central Hospital to Agadama Secondary School in white caskets amid wailings and invectives.

Mourners, who rained curses on the killers, berated the Federal government and the security agencies for not tackling the herdsmen’s menace headlong.

Nine of the victims were buried in a mass grave while the tenth was conveyed to Ofoni, his country in Bayelsa State, for burial.

Meanwhile, the State Commissioner for Higher Education, Prof Patrick Muoboghare, who was at the burial, decried the killing of the victims.

He expressed displeasure at the continued siege on the communities by suspected herdsmen, as folks can longer access their farmlands for fear of being killed.

He alleged that the killer-herdsmen were foreign Fulani herdsmen from Mali, Chad and other northern parts of Africa.

Muoboghare, however, called on the Federal Government to prevail on the marauders to vacate the kingdom so that farmers could return to their farms ahead of the rainy season.