BARELY two months after gunmen slained two police officers, a police officer with Dragon 19, attached to Ughelli Area Command, simply identified as Jude Ukpaka was shot dead and his Ak-47 stolen by suspected gunmen in Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State.
Vanguard gathered that the officer and two of his other colleagues were at a checkpoint along the Ogor-Evwreni axis of the East-West road before the unfortunate incident occurred on Wednesday evening.
An unconfirmed report said there was an attack on travellers returning from Bayelsa in the early morning of the same day before the killing in the evening at almost the same spot as the incident.
It would be recalled that two months ago, two police officers, PC Ujeyah Matthew and Sergeant Ijebu attached to the Ofuoma division were killed and their guns stolen at Ekredjebor community in Ughelli North.
Efforts to contact the Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Bright Edafe were not successful as his mobile line was busy and text messages sent at the time of this report were not responded to.
But a Senior security source from Delta State Police Command who confirmed the incident on anonymous condition, disclosed that the other officers escaped into the swamp.
“They ran into a swamp until they were rescued by a team from Ughelli Area Command, while the remains of the deceased officer has been deposited at the mortuary.”