Civil society groups in Edo State today went round the capital, Benin City, to protest the murder of one Efe Ogbeide, a deaf and dumb man in Obazagbon, a community situated in Oredo Local Government Area of the state.
Comrade Kola Edokpayi, who spoke on behalf of the groups, asked for justice for the deceased who was murdered in cold blood by gunmen at a project site. He urged the state government to fish out the culprits and make them atone for their sins.
Omasah Melody, the Executive Director, Network for the Advancement of People with Visible Disability, explained that because of his disability the victim could not hear when the alarm of the invaders was raised.
“While others ran away, but because he could not hear, he fell in the hands of his murderers. We are pained. We are touched because Mrs. Betty(the widow) has lost a very dear husband. His children have been made fatherless.
“Ogbeide’s crime was that he went around to fend for himself and his family in spite of his disability so that he will not to be a liability to society. It was in the quest of struggling to put food on the table of his family that death met him absolutely.
“The frequency of communal clashes over land and its related issues is becoming one too many. It has to stop. Security agents must rise to the occasion. When there are crisis in community, the physically challenged suffer more. People with disabilities are worse hit,” Melody stated.
Edo State Police Public Relations Officer(PPRO), CSP Moses Joel Yamu, disclosed that three suspects have been arrested over the mayhem in the community, adding that investigation is continuing.
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