Gunmen kill Benue governor’s ‘most dependable’ aide

Igbana was killed in the early hours at his Tionsha residence.

Speaking during a sympathy visit to the family of the deceased, Ortom vowed that Igbana’s killers would never go unpunished.

He ordered an investigation into the killing, assuring that anybody implicated in the killing would not be spared.

Ortom described the deceased as one f his most trusted and dependable appointees.

He disclosed that the deceased had intimated him that some people were threatening to kidnap him and that Igbana requested for funds to carry out perimeter fencing of his house.

Ortom said that was instrumental to the sustenance of the amnesty programme in the state that led to the surrender of arms by criminal gangs.

The governor said his administration would carry out discrete investigation on the killing to unravel the motive and people behind the act.

Also speaking, Paul Yakadi, the commissioner of police in the state, said the police were already “nosing around to fish out possible suspects”.

Thomas Ayakpam, a leader in Tionsha community, said the gunmen struck around 2:30am.

He said after the gunshots died down, he heard the deceased pleading with his assailants to spare his life.

I heard him say, “So, Ghana, after all that that we have done together, you can look me in the face and kill me in this manner”.

Some sympathisers confirmed that they also heard gunshots and the altercation between Igbana and his killers.