The battered body of Samuel Mayomi, who drowned after some elements ambushed the boats conveying members of the Ugborodo Community Management Committee (UCMC) was, on Tuesday morning, recovered by the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Delta at Madangho, in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State.
The body of the father-of-two, as gathered, is now awaiting the arrival of the Marine Police who’ll move it to Warri.
Mayomi and one other, Mr Benson Okoturo, died on Tuesday when two of the several boats conveying members of UCMC, Ugborodo elders, women and youths from Warri, Sapele, Benin, Lagos to Ugborodo were attacked between Kpokpo and Madangho by armed youths who were on four speed boats.
Mr Okoturo was said to have died from the shock of sporadic gunshots from the marauders when he was about embarking on a speedboat at Madangho jetty to Ode-Ugborodo for the meeting.
Five of the 19 occupants of one of the several speedboats conveying the Ugborodo people, which was sunk by the marauders, were allegedly kidnapped, dispossessed of their valuables detained and tortured in the home of one Ofe Pender Nene and Benson Dube, among others at Ugborodo.
At a press conference by UCMC on Thursday at Ugborodo House in Warri, which was attended by tens of elders, women and youths, chairman of the committee, Mr Austin Ogboroegbeyi, a lawyer, set the record of the Tuesday tragedy straight.
He said members of the committee and other indigenes of the community were on their way to Ugborodo to attend a general meeting duly scheduled by the Eghare-Aja of Ugborodo, Pa Wellington Ojogor, who is chairman of the Council of Elders, when their convoy was ambushed.
He confirmed an earlier narrative by Alex Eyengho, one of the UCMC members, that the attackers had their way because the police escort, authorised by the state’s Commissioner of Police, Mr Zanna Ibrahim to accompany them, were not authorised to apply force being a civil matter.
According to Ogboroegbeyi, the agenda of the botched general meeting was for UCMC to brief Ugborodo people, initiate a process of constitutional harmonization for the community, address issues of incessant disruption of the work of international oil companies operating in the area as well as kidnapping, illegal oil bunkering and pipeline vandalism.
While asserting that there was no leadership crisis in Ugborodo as some media reports suggest, Ogboroegbeyi, noted that the aim of the attack was to scare people from accessing the community so that the miscreants could continue with their nefarious activities.
The chairman, who thanked the police officers for their professional conduct, therefore called for a swift investigation into the deaths and bring the culprits to justice.
The committee also urged the Federal Government and the Delta State government to end oil bunkering and other forms of lawlessness and restore law and order in Ugborodo.
Commissioner of Police, Delta State, Mr Ibrahim, who had earlier confirmed the Tuesday incident, promised a thorough investigation into the tragedy and bring the culprits to book.
He, however, added that he had only been informed of the death of one person, saying he was still expecting details of the murder from the Warri Area Command.
Meanwhile, a relation of Mayomi, Prince Perry Atete, who’s the Igbajo of Ode-Ugborodo, at the Thursday meeting, vowed to make sure the criminals, who killed his kinsman, were brought to book.