Paul Ojile and his cousin have reportedly been beheaded by unknown assailants in the Orokam district of Ogbadibo Local Government Area of Benue State.
A source in the community said the two went missing on Thursday, June 16, 2022, but after a search was conducted, their heads were found on Friday, June 17, 2022.
The source said the beheaded councillor elect and his cousin were among the security team who earlier went on a rescue mission of an abducted victim in the area.
“Ojile who was waiting to be inaugurated into the council next month was discovered alongside his cousin in a bush without heads,” the source said
Confirming the incident, Chairman of Ogbadigbo LGA, Prince Samuel Onuh, said the deceased was a hunter who alongside his colleagues joined a security operation to tame rising incidents of kidnapping in the locality.
Onuh said in recent times, there had been many kidnappings in the community, with the latest happening on Thursday, adding that the rescue team actually effected the arrest of two kidnappers and rescued a victim before it was later discovered that two persons among them were missing.
“There was a kidnap yesterday (Thursday); actually in the last three days, kidnappers have been troubling the area, there had been incessant kidnapping in the local government. They left one community in Owukpa and went to Orokam; on their way, they kidnapped one man.
“The councillor-elect who lives in the village is a hunter. He, his cousin, other hunters and the vigilante with Operation Zenda (a police outfit) had entered the forest to see if they could rescue the man that was kidnapped; it was when they were to return yesterday that they noticed two of them were missing but they were able to arrest two of the kidnappers. It was this morning that they were able to check again and found their lifeless bodies – the councillor elect and his cousin,” the chairman narrated.
He said the arrested kidnap suspects have been taken to Makurdi for investigation by Operation Zenda.
Catherine Anene, the Police public relations Officer (PPRO) for the Benue Command, told journalists in Makurdi, that Operation Zenda had brought the arrested suspects to Makurdi but that she was yet to get details of the incident.
