Emmanuel Adeyemi, Lokoja
The vigilance group chairman of Egume community, Mr. Attah Isah was on Sunday evening murdered by gunmen at Efakwu – Egume in Dekina Local government area, Kogi State.
Sources closed to the family informed that his assailants who had been trailing him during the day, later confronted him at the front of his house at Efakwu area in Egume at about 8.00pm
It was gathered that late Attah had earlier in the day gone to the home branch executive officers of Egume Ome Descendants Union to inquire about an incident that led to an invitation being extended to him by security àgents at Anyigba in Dekina local government area.
The incident according to reliable sources was sequel to some allegations bordering on the late chairman’s mediatory roles between the community and herdsmen who have been causing havocs on the people’s farms in the area.
The gunmen were said to have opened fire on him at a close range , killing him instantly at about 8.00 pm on Sunday while he was relaxing in front of his house. And before his friends and family members could run out after the assailants, they reportedly zoomed off on a standby motorcycle.
It would be recalled that the former chairman of a vigilance group in Egume, Mallam Attah Wada, (AkA) Ukpono was equally assassinated while praying in front of his house at Egume on the 27th May 2014 at about 6.30pm.
In the same vein, the Amana- Attah of Ojikpadala – Egume, Chief Isah Edime, the pioneer General Manager of Radio Kogi and the former producer of “Democracy in Action” in the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) was also kidnapped from his house and assassinated the same day Mallam Attah Wada was murdered.
Since that time, it was learnt that no arrest had been made in connection with those incidents by either the police or any law enforcement àgents in the state.
In his reaction, the national president of Egume Ome Descendants Union (EODU) Alhaji Mohammed Ibrahim expressed shock over the murder of the vigilante chairman, describing the act as inhuman, horrific and sad
The president appreciated the role played by the deceased in curbing crimes and other social vices in Egume community and it’s environs and prayed for the repose of his soul.
Alhaji Ibrahim noted bitterly that it was a calculated attempt by criminals to re awaken the insecurity saga that had scared Egume sons and daughters in the diaspora from visiting home to contribute their quotas to the development of their fatherland.
He, therefore, called on the state governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, the commissioner of police and other security agents to rise to the challenge by doing the needful to bring all the perpetrators connected to the murder of the vigilance group chairman and other incessant killings in the area to justice.
Confirming the incidence to newsmen on Tuesday in Lokoja, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) Kogi Command, Mr Williams Aya (DSP), said one Enemaku Isah of Egume, a younger brother to the slain vigilnce group chair.