There was heavy apprehension yesterday in Aladja community, Udu Council Area of Delta State, following the disappearance of a 40-year-old plumber, Kingsley Paya, who had gone to work on his farm. Leaders of the community alleged that the father of four might have been killed or kidnapped by some yet-to-be-identified armed men, suspected to have […]
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There was heavy apprehension yesterday in Aladja community, Udu Council Area of Delta State, following the disappearance of a 40-year-old plumber, Kingsley Paya, who had gone to work on his farm.
Leaders of the community alleged that the father of four might have been killed or kidnapped by some yet-to-be-identified armed men, suspected to have come from the neighbouring Isaba community, Warri South-West Council Area. Both communities have adversarial relationship for years.
Aladja is an Urhobo community. Isaba is an Ijaw community. It denied the allegation, describing it as a lie and yet another ploy of Aladja to escalate trouble.
The Youths President of Aladja, Wisdom Onatomre, said Paya went to his farm to collect his harvested plantains.
“One of our sons, Kingsley, went into his farm early this morning and the only thing we heard from that area were gunshots. All these happened around 5 to 6am. So, when it was day break, we strolled to the area and that was when the army there told us that the guy parked his car and rolled a wheelbarrow into the farm; that’s all we know and up till now we have not seen him.
“We could not go into the bush; so, we couldn’t ascertain how the place he went to look like; whether there was blood or see any clue.”
However, the Youths President of Isaba, Moses Ogugu, in a telephone conversation on Wednesday, said there was no way an Isaba person would traveled about 10 kilometres to either kill or kidnap anybody, especially with soldiers on guard.
Ogugu said: “There’s nothing like that. They are lying. I called the Aladja youths president, Mr Wisdom, this morning when I heard about the story and he said the man parked his car at the army checkpoint of Aladja and went into his farm there. That place is about 10 kilometres away from Isaba and there’s no way an Isaba person will go that far to kill or kidnap someone.
“Do they have a witness? They are just looking for trouble. That’s how they came to Isaba on February 6 to behead one of our sons and up till date government has not done anything about that. Anytime they come up with lies like this, you will know that they want to start another problem.
“My take is since government has provided security on that road, both in Isaba and in Aladja, they should go to both ends to ask the security men what they saw, not just pointing fingers at innocent people.”
Delta Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Andrew Aniamaka, told The Nation that a case of a missing person had been reported by Aladja people, adding that there was no report of shooting
“We have a case of missing person in Ovwian/Aladja area. Actually, a young man, an Ovwian/Aladja person, went to his farm and of course you will expect that since his people didn’t see him, they have every cause to be apprehensive
“For now, we are treating it as a case of a missing person. What we have is that he went to his farm and has not come back, the natural apprehension will be ‘what could have happened’. We have no report of any gunshot,” he said.
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