Over 30 houses were reportedly torched by mobile policemen in Afisiere, Ughelli North Council, Delta State yesterday. Three persons were also reported killed in the attack.
The policemen were despatched from the Ogwashi Uku Mobile Police Camp following the killing on Thursday of a Divisional Police Officer (DPO) and a Police Inspector Mr. Elias Allison by youths believed to be from Afisiere.
The policemen dressed in full combat gear were bitter over the killing of the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) Mr. Nnamdi Ngwokor in Ughelli and a Police Inspector on Thursday by youths believed to be from Afisiere community.
The Delta State Police Commissioner, Mr Udom Ekpoudom who confirmed the death of the police officers said a manhunt for the criminals had been launched.
Trouble, The Guardian learnt, began on Thursday morning when Afisiere youths blocked off some roads in a section of Ughelli and began snatching cars purportedly to be used to convey Afisiere youths to Ekuigbo for a reprisal attack. It was learnt that there had been a clash the previous day between Afisiere and Ekiugbo in which some Afisiere youths were injured.
A police team allegedly led by the DPO and the inspector were said to have moved to the scene with the intention of recovering some of the snatched vehicles and containing the criminal activities of the armed youths. But the police team came under gunfire from the armed youths. The DPO and the Inspector were killed in the process.
An eyewitness said there was protracted exchange of gunfire between the police and the youths, adding that staccato bursts of gunfire could be heard from different flash points.
Commercial activities in the otherwise calm Ughelli town came to a halt as shops began closing up for fear of being looted by hundreds of miscreants who poured into the streets.
Vehicles coming from Port Harcourt and Asaba had to make a U-turn as the East West Road at the Ughelli end was covered with debris, woods, trunks from trees, tires etc, thrown there by hoodlums.
The Delta State Police Commissioner, Mr. Udom Ekpoudom, told The Guardian on phone that the Police command lost a DPO and an inspector in the crisis. He said he had instructed his men in Ughelli to leave no stone unturned in fishing out the perpetrators of the heinous crime.
“I have given instruction that the people who killed the police officers be arrested. Nobody can kill a police officer and go scot-free. I’m still gathering details on the crisis,” Ekpoudom said yesterday.
24 militant youths have been arrested by the Delta State Police Command in connection with the killing of the Divisional Police Officer.