By Perez Brisibe

UGHELLI—The Youth Wing of Urhobo Progress Union, UPU, yesterday, condemned the alleged killing of an Oghara vigilante chairman, Benson Ogedegbe, by men of the Nigerian Army, 19 Battalion, Koko, Warri North Local Government Area of Delta State.

In a statement by its secretary, Rex Anighoro, the union called on the government, judiciary, Nigerian military and other stakeholders, to join forces with the Ogedegbe family in the demand for justice.

Anighoro noted that whatever the perceived offence of the late Ogedegbe might be, the soldiers’  resort to extinguishing a citizen’s life without recourse to judicial processes was a sin against God and a crime against humanity, stressing that it was totally unacceptable.

He said: “As an Urhobo youth leader, I find it repulsive that extra-judicial killings have continued in Urhobo- land without any remedy. The extra-judicial killing and unresolved legal battle of the  late Chief Ogbe Onokpite, even at high cost of legal redress, remains a sad commentary to all men of conscience.

“The security agencies are certainly aware of the financial constraints in seeking justice for citizens killed extra- judicially and as such have continued unabated to murder citizens at the slightest provocation and intimidating our people to submission and making us to perpetually live in fear as a conquered people.

“At the dawn of a new democratic era propelled by the mantra of change, it is an absurdity that our armed forces, which should be protecting our territorial integrity and fighting the insurgency of Boko Haram, are allegedly killing defenceless citizens.”