A 65-year-old convict-turned police informant in Uyo local government area of Akwa Ibom State has been slain by unknown gunmen suspected to be cult members.
The deceased, Raphael Udofia, was said to have been brutally shot and his head chopped off, leaving the police to recover his mangled body.
A family source told our correspondent that Udofia had spent over 18 years in prison for killing his father, before returning to take up vigilante job in the area. Another police informant identified as Dan Mark, was said to have been severally shot by the gunmen who thought he was dead.
According to one Effiong Akpan, a local vigilante, “Mark is currently receiving treatment in an undisclosed hospital after the attack. His hands were shattered by bullets as he used them to protect himself. He fell down and pretended to be dead. The criminals left him thinking he was dead.”
Akpan ruled out robbery, noting that the hoodlums, numbering about 15, who attacked the two informants on Sunday, “Never stole any property or cash from the victims.”
He noted that the incident was a clear case of assassination.
He said, “After the attack, they only stole laptops and telephones from some students of the University of Uyo and escaped.”
The matter, it was learnt, was being investigated by the ‘A’ Division Police Station along Wellington Bassey Way, Uyo.
Police spokesperson in the state, Odiko Macdon, said the case had yet to be transferred to the state police headquarters for further investigation.
Macdon assured that all the suspects would be arrested and appealed to the residents to cooperate in the investigation by volunteering information about criminal elements in their neighbourhoods.
