Union officials beat tricycle operator to death in Delta

Some members of the Motorcycle and Tricycle Union, Uvwie chapter, in Delta State have allegedly beaten a 24‑year‑old commercial tricycle operator from Ebonyi State, Friday Igwe, to death at Effurun community, near Warri.


Five of the 15 suspects, reported to be officials of the union’s task force, who carried out the act supposedly on the orders of their leaders, have been arrested by the Police from the Ebrumede Police Division in the state.

The suspects were said to have on February 10, in Effurun, pounced on the tricycle operator, a school certificate holder and prospective Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, student, who hailed from Amoffia Ngbo, Ohaukwu Local Government Area, Ebonyi State.

There was no answer from the Delta State Police spokesperson, DSP Celestina Kalu, when Vanguard called him severally on phone, yesterday, for comment on the incident.

However, counsel to the Igwe family, Oghenejabor Ikimi, told Vanguard: “The deceased was plying his trade in Effurun when he was accosted by members of the task force, who menacingly demanded from him, both his daily welfare ticket and his Delta State Motorcycle and Tricycle Union identity card, while carrying out the directives of the executives of the Uvwie chapter.

“We were further informed by an eye witness and relation of the deceased, Stephen Ali, that upon the deceased producing his welfare ticket for the day and his identity card, the said task force alleged that the identity card had expired.

“In the process, the deceased was dispossessed of his tricycle and in the melee that ensued, he was clubbed to death by members of the said task force, numbering 15.”

According to reports, the remains of the deceased were deposited at the morgue of the General Hospital, Agbarho.

The police were reportedly making frantic search for the fleeing suspects.

He said: “The remaining assailants and the executives of the Delta State Motorcycle and Tricycle Union, Uvwie chapter, are walking the streets of Effurun and its environs freely as the men of the State Criminal Investigation Department, CID, Asaba have failed to effect the arrest of the remaining culprits and the executives of the said chapter.”

He called on the Inspector General of Police to carry out comprehensive investigation into the gruesome murder in a bid to apprehending the remaining members of the task force and its union executives involved in the dastard act, as justice delayed is justice denied.