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Rivers: Police confirm murder of OSPAC vigilante leader

From Tony John, Port Harcourt

The Rivers State Police Command has confirmed the killing of Alex Isaac, the leader of disbanded vigilante group OSPAC in the Umudioga community of Emohua Local Government Area.

Police spokesman Nnamdi Omoni, a Superintendent of Police (SP), told reporters that the dismembered body of the victim has been recovered and deposited in the mortuary.

Omoni stated that the police have restored normalcy in the community while the Commissioner of Police, CP Eboka Friday, has ordered for investigation into the incident.

Gunmen suspected to be cultists had on Tuesday, invaded Umudioga community and killed the leader of OSPAC, a disbanded local vigilance group in the area.

Some natives of the community who asked to remain anonymous disclosed that the gunmen invaded the community in the afternoon and went after their target.

The sources revealed that the gunmen shot Mr Isaac dead before he was beheading and his body dismembered.

The source explained that the gunmen displayed the head of their victim in the community, urging natives not to panic as they came for the deceased only.

Daily Sun gathered that some other members of the disbanded OSPAC have fled the community as a result of the murder of their former leader.

The killing comes barely three a month after the Chairman of Emohua Local Government Council, Dr Chidi Lloyd, pronounced the proscription of the vigilance group in the council.

Lloyd told the communities that make up the Local Government Area to submit five names of natives who would be screened and admitted into a new security outfit to be established and funded by the council soonest.

OSPAC was inaugurated in the community in 2019; the security outfit was able to curb cult activities by killing some cultists, with others fleeing the area.

The council however disbanded the security outfit following allegations of indiscriminate killings, maimings and arrests of residents.

OSPAC, an acronym for Ogba Security and Peace Advisory Council, was established to curb cult-related activities in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of the state.

The group’s actions were replicated by some Ikwerre speaking local government areas to address cultism.

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