Friday, March 29, 2024

How corpse of man dumped in a bush caused panic in Warri

It was an unpleasant sight in Warri, Delta State, last Thursday morning when the corpse of an unidentified young man was found to have been dumped in the bush behind a popular plaza in the town.

The corpse, according to eyewitnesses, must have been dumped in the area in the early hours of that day.

Although the cause of the death of the young man could not be ascertained by anyone, it was gathered that he might have been lynched by some unidentified persons around the Okumagba area of Warri South Local Government Area of the state.

An eyewitness, who spoke under condition of anonymity, said nobody knew exactly what led to the young man’s death.

 

Initially, I did not know it was a dead body. When I saw that it was a corpse, my brother, I ran like a blind man. I am not sure that I will pass through that road again. I had never seen a dead body since I was born

 

He said, “This morning, when I was going to work, I decided to take this shortcut to my place of work because I did not have transport fare. As I was passing by the bush path behind the plaza, I saw someone lying on the ground.

“Initially I thought it was a mad man, but on a closer look, I saw that the person was already stone dead! He had bruises all over his body, but there was no blood on any part of his body.

“When I saw the body, I wanted to raise the alarm, but on a second thought, I decided to keep quiet because I was not the first person that saw it. People were passing by the dead body without raising any alarm, probably because they were afraid that people would ask them questions. I don’t want anybody to ask me questions, because I do not know how the corpse got here. Even as I am talking to you now, I am not comfortable.”

Another eyewitness, who also did not want to be identified, said she was coming from a vigil when she saw something that looked like a human being along the bush path.

She said when she saw that it was a dead body, she turned around and took to her heels, not looking back, adding that she was still shaken by the fact that she had seen a dead body for the first time.

She said, “I was returning from a vigil when I saw the dead body. Initially, I did not know it was a dead body. When I saw that it was a corpse, my brother, I ran like a blind man. I am not sure that I will pass through that road again. I had never seen a dead body since I was born. Right now, as I am talking to you, my body is still shaking from the shock.”

Another eyewitness, Emeka Ndoka, who runs a shop close to the bush path, where the dead body was dumped, said when he opened his shop that morning, he did not know that anything was wrong until he started noticing that people were no longer passing through the road that used to be very busy.

Ndoka said that it was when he inquired from one of the passersby what was happening and why people were running that he was told that there was a dead body dumped on the road.

“When I came to open my shop this morning, I noticed that this small bush part that used to be busy was quiet. So, I decided to ask those few ones passing what was wrong. One of them told me that there was a dead body on the road. To satisfy my curiosity, I decided to go and check myself, and that was when I saw that it was a young man. From the look of things, I think he was beaten to death by God knows who. A lot of things are happening in this town and only God will save us in this town.”

But when contacted, a police source close to “B” Division Police Station, Warri, told our correspondent that they were only called to go and evacuate the corpse to the mortuary, adding that the police were investigating the matter.

Francis Sadhere, Warri, Delta State

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