By Emma Amaize
WARRI — A 32-year–old man, Mr. Monday Erhuen, has been allegedly beaten to death in Orhuwhorun by a suspected vigilance group, Udu Vigilance Group, a security outfit known as Udu Bakassi, operated in Udu Local Government Area of Delta State.

Vanguard learnt that the policemen from the Office of the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 5, Benin City, in Edo State visited Udu at the weekend in connection with the murder.

It was learnt that the Udu Bakassi, led by a councillor in Udu Local Government Area has been terrorising residents of Udu for sometime now. The members patrol the local government with Pick-up vans, usually attired in red hand and head bands.

The group was said to have swooped on Orhuwhorun town on September 30, with guns, machetes, cudgels and axes in company of policemen from the Owvian-Aladja Police Station to arrest somebody, but the deceased intervened and pleaded with them to resolve the matter amicably.

It was gathered that for daring to advise the security outfit to be civil in its approach and settle the matter amicably, the leader of the team ordered his men to pounce on him in the presence of the policemen.

He was beaten to pulp and slumped, after which he was bundled into a waiting vehicle with the assistance of the policemen and taken to the Ovwian-Aladja Police Station, where the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, in charge, on seeing his condition, ordered that he should be rushed to the hospital.

His family members who gathered at the police station watched with consternation but he died before he could reach the Warri General hospital as a result of the beating.

As at last Friday, his body was lying in the morgue of a private clinic in Orhuwhorun.
Solicitor to the family, Mr. Ahweyevu Mukoro  told Vanguard, weekend, in Warri, that he had petitioned the Inspector General of Police over the officially sponsored murder of Odeku by a vigilance group, set up by the Udu local government council in the state.

He said the group was being used by politicians to intimidate the people of the local government and could be used to cause havoc during the 2011 elections if not checkmated.