George Okoh in Makurdi
Unknown gunmen Saturday beseiged Wankya settlement of Zaki-Biam town in Ukum; killing two persons and abducting another.
According to a source who spoke under anonymity, the killers stormed the area at about 11.30 pm with guns, forced the doors of the victims open and took them away at gun-point.
The anonymous informants gave the names of those killed as Saater Wantu, younger brother to the Benue state correspondent of The Guardian Newspaper, Lagos, and Denen, a recharge card dealer in the settlement, while the third person, Terseer Wantu escaped unhurt from the hands of the assailants.
Narrating the ordeal, the escapee, Wantu said himself and his brother, the deceased, had already gone to bed without premonition of any heinous attack on them, just for them to witness a forceful inversion of their home by the bandit who took them away to unknown destination on gun point.
He said the assailants took three of them away through a bush path and asked him (Terseer Wantu) to lay face down and move away with the other two who were eventually killed.
“After a while, they asked me to flee away by midnight but move further and I could not find my direction to go home, so, I slept in the bush till day break before I managed my way home in the morning,†he narrated.
He added that the matter has since been reported to the divisional police office and useful statement made to them regarding the attack.
Sources from the police at Zaki Biam Divisional Police Office confirmed the killing, adding that the corpses of the victims were recovered along a bush path close to Tse-Manger settlement of Ukum LGA of the state.
According to the source, the two dead bodies have been recovered and deposited at St. Anthony’s Catholic Hospital, Zaki- Biam.
Attempt to get confirmation from the police proofed abortive as the phone numbers of the state Police commissioner or PRO could not be reached.
