The Edo State Police Command announced on Sunday the arrest of a local vigilante member in Benu for allegedly killing an artisan, Lasan Osanze Erhabo, and setting his corpse ablaze.
According to Moses Yamu, the Command’s Public Relations Officer, the suspect was apprehended by operatives from the Textile Mill Road Division following a distress call from the public at around 8 am on February 20, 2025.
Yamu explained that the Divisional Police Officer received a call about a burning corpse under a heap of sawdust. Upon investigation, the police found the body of Erhabo, a middle-aged man, with a gunshot wound on the back of his neck.
The suspect, a security personnel at the sawmill, has been taken into custody, and the case has been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department for further investigation.
As Yamu noted, “The DPO mobilised and deployed his operatives to the scene and actually found the corpse burning under the sawdust.” The police are currently investigating the motive behind the killing, which is believed to have stemmed from a disagreement between the suspect and the deceased.
They took the corpse to the hospital, but, they, however, found that there was a gunshot injury on the back of the deceased.
“Investigation has already commenced, and we have one suspect in our custody who was the security person of the sawmill at the time the incident happened.”
Yamu said the case has been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department for in-depth investigations, assuring all that after the investigation, the suspect would be charged in court for murder.