Soldiers, SARS raid vigilante group’s shrine in Rivers community over murder, burial of man

A combined team of Soldiers and operatives of the Special Anti-robbery Squad (SARS), on Thursday raided the shrine of a community vigilante group, Ibaa Security Peace and Advisory Committee, ISPAC, in Ibaa community, Emohua Local Government Area over the murder of a man said to be in his early 20s.

The heavily armed security operatives raided the shrine in search of fleeing members of the vigilante outfit over the murder which left the community in shock.

The deceased was killed on Tuesday after operatives of the vigilante group intercepted him and a friend.

It was gathered that the friend had gone to the house of the deceased and picked him up with a motorcycle so they could buy some edibles in the community’s market but was stopped on their way by the ISPAC operatives who mounted a roadblock along the road.

They asked the deceased’s friend to go while the deceased was detained and was later killed.

Worried by the inability of the deceased to return, the family visited the friend that picked him up with his motorcycles who explained all that transpired earlier in the day.

The family reported the incident to the security agencies who stormed the community and discovered that their son had been killed and buried.

A family source said they were further informed that to cover their tracks, they learnt that the vigilante members exhumed the corpse of their son from where it was initially buried and threw it into a toilet pit.

The source added that the remains had been recovered while security operatives are still hunting for operatives of the vigilante group.

ISPAC Commander, Godday Awijaya did not immediately respond to calls made to his phone for comments.