By Jethro Ibileke
Some residents of Obazagbon community, in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State, on Tuesday protested the gruesome murder of a hearing-impaired man identified as Efe Ogbeide.
The victim was said to have been gruesomely murdered at a construction site where he was supervising a building project by yet-to-be-identified gunmen.
The protesters who demanded justice for his death, urged the government to ensure that the culprits are brought to book.
The community is said to be embroiled in violent leadership crisis, leading to the destruction of property and loss of lives.
The Executive Director of Network for the Advancement of People with Visible Disability, Barr. Melody Omasah, who led the protesters, lamented the circumstances that led to the victim’s death.
He noted that the victim was a deaf and 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 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,” Omasah said.
Reacting to the development, the State Police Command spokesman, CSP Moses Yamu, said three suspects have been arrested over the mayhem in Obazagbon community, adding that investigation is still ongoing.
