Enugu killing: 5 more bodies recently discovered

FIVE more bodies have been discovered in a shallow grave at Ugwuaji, near Enugu, even as the Tricycle Riders’ Association, popularly known as “Keke Riders,” on Wednesday, identified three of the victims in the suspected ritual killing as their members.

Speaking when he led the executive members of the association on a condolence visit to the Enugu Central Mosque at Asata Enugu, chairman of the union, Comrade Ikah Benjamin Ejiofor, described the gruesome murder of the ‘keke’ riders as “most wicked and despicable.”

He gave names of the victims as Babangida Sale, Ashahabu Dauda and Ismahil Abdulahi.
It will be recalled that three bodies were, on Monday, exhumed from the foundation of a building project, located at the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway.

Comrade Ejiofor, who was moved to tears, described the killing as most barbaric and against the principles of life.
According to him, “our members are rendering very important services to the society and it is so bad that the same people we are serving should turn back to treat us this way.

“We are grieved over this colossal loss and that is why we are here to commiserate with the Hausa community in Enugu. We are, indeed, in this tragedy together; we are so much pained.”

Giving insight into the incident, he said the ‘keke’ riders left their different units on Saturday, but never returned, adding that “a search party was later organised and with that came the result of what we saw on Monday.

“At this moment, our plea to security agents is that this evil should not go unpunished; no stone should be left unturned in a bid to bring the perpetrators of this dastardly act to book.

“We cannot categorically say whether they were killed for ritual or not, because even their tricycles have not been found; so, we are leaving that aspect for security agents.”

He advised ‘keke’ riders to, henceforth, stop picking people for drop to isolated areas.
In his remarks, one of the leaders of the Hausa community in Enugu, A.A Sambo, described the death of their brothers as most shocking.

“We lack words with which to describe this situation; it is so sad that vibrant young men left home in the morning in search of their daily breadm but never returned alive; it so sad that they were hacked to death in such manner,” he lamented.

One of those who participated in the search further disclosed that apart from the fresh bodies of the three ‘keke’ riders, there were about five other human skeletons found there.

“We even saw some female bags at that scene, which suggests that some women must had also fallen victims,” he disclosed.