Gunmen force family to dig grave, bury son in Delta

—ARMED men, at gunpoint in Ekpan community, Delta State, compelled the Erhikevbe family to dig a grave and inter their son, Moses Erhikevbe, killed on August 22. The police have, however, arrested two of the suspects after exhuming the hurriedly buried corpse.
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But the family of the victim is apprehensive that the Police were not handling the matter properly, as the hoodlums were threatening them for having the audacity to expose them. Counsel to Erhikevbe family, Oghenejabor Ikimi, in a petition to the Inspector General of Police, said that Moses was “beaten to death and his body dumped close to a hotel on NPA Expressway, Ekpan, on August 22.”
He said that the family on receiving the information rushed to the scene and conveyed him in a commercial motorcycle to the General Hospital, Ekpan, where doctors confirmed him dead on arrival.
Ikimi stated that the family took the corpse to his late father’s compound on No I Afieki Quarter, Ekpan, with the intention of lodging a formal complaint the next day at the Ekpan Police Station, Ekpan, since it was already late, but at 12.55 a.m., August 23, a set of youths in the area stormed the house, threatening to raze down the building and throw the corpse into the river, if the victim was not buried before dawn.
He said that the youths numbering over seven started shooting sporadically into the air and ordered the family at gun point to bring out the deceased for burial.
Ikimi pointed out in the petition that only a member of the family, Grace Erhikevbe, made a written statement to the Police, while others who were arrested, including Monday Erhikevbe, were not allowed “on the pretext that the aforesaid matter together with the said suspects had been transferred to the State CID, Asaba.
“It is our brief that since the aforesaid matter was transferred to the State CID, Asaba, and our clients had made several trips to Asaba to no avail, hence this petition to your office.”