Gunmen suspected to be members of a rival cult group, on Saturday, shot dead a member of a vigilante group in Benin.
The killers were said to have trailed their victim who was simply identified as Endurance from his house in uptown Benin to a Lotto Betting shop at Ologbotsere Street, off Benin Technical College (BTC) Road in Egor local government area where he was shot thrice at point-blank at about 6 pm.
Stakers at the Lotto Betting shop scampered for safety as the fatal shots by the gunmen rang out while panicking neighbours hurriedly boarded their windows and doors for fear of reprisal attack by his colleagues.
Members of the vigilance group in the area immediately mobilised to the crime scene in a desperate effort to rescue their colleague who is popularly called DMX but was found dead in the pool of his own blood.
Angered by the killing, his colleagues blockaded the nearby streets, stopping and searching passersby for the killers but to no avail.
Eyewitness account disclosed that the assailants rode in two vehicles, a Mercedes-Benz 4matic Saloon car and a Toyota Camry popularly called spider.
It was gathered that after the gunmen shot their victim thrice in his chest, they hurriedly sped off through the Medical Stores/ Okhoro road in Benin City.
The remains of the vigilante were later evacuated by policemen from the local division to an undisclosed hospital.
The renewed cult violence in the past one week has claimed two lives so far in the area following the killing of Augustine Izu, a final year Political Science student of the University of Benin (UNIBEN), who was killed by unknown gunmen hours after writing his final examination.
Izu was trailed to his off-campus hostel on Omage Street, off Federal Government Girls College Road (FGGC), Ugbowo, Benin, by his assailants who shot him dead in his room.
Determined efforts to reach the Edo State Police spokesman, Mr Kpotongs Bello, proved abortive as his mobile phone was engaged.
