Tension mounted in Delta State on Sunday as the remains of two of the five soldiers and an employee of Shell Petroleum Development Company, murdered on Friday by irate youths in Ughelli, headquarters of Ughelli North Local Government Area of the state, were recovered.
The corpses of a soldier and an employee of the Dutch oil firm were picked up in the early hours of Sunday.
The deceased were found in the bush in Ekuigbo community, Ughelli, by troops deployed in the area by the Commander of the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta, Operation Restore Hope, Brig.-Gen. Alfred Ilogho, in the aftermath of the incident on Friday.
Reports available to our correspondent, however, indicated that four soldiers were still missing as at Sunday afternoon.
This development, probably informed the heavy presence of soldiers in the community as at press time on Sunday afternoon.
The stern-looking soldiers mounted blockades in major areas and embarked on cordon and search for the missing security operatives and five service rifles stolen by the recalcitrant youths.
It will be recalled that a team, made up of five soldiers and an employee of SPDC heading for an oil field of the Dutch firm in the area, was allegedly attacked by Ekuigbo youths along Ughelli/Patani Highway on Friday.
They were reportedly whisked to a location in the area where the soldiers were disarmed and killed by the youths. The oil worker was not spared.
Investigation by our correspondent revealed that Friday�s incident was a retaliatory action by Ekuigbo youths who were reportedly angered by the killing of their kinsmen by youths of Oteri community, also located in Ughelli metropolis, allegedly on the prompting of a legislator in the state (name withheld).
The deceased youths reportedly stormed the lawmaker�s residence along Isoko Road, to demand financial reward for undisclosed assignment given to them during the recent primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party, in which the lawmaker sought a futile third term mandate, before the Oteri youths were invited to confront them.
However, the incident took a new twist when the state Police Command accepted responsibility for the fate of Ekuigbo youths, describing them as bandits and that they were killed in a gun battle with the men of the anti robbery squad of the command.