"As a government in Delta, we will be with their families in this their trying moments."
Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State and Vice-Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has commiserated with the police in the state and families of police officers killed by gunmen in Anambra State.
The State Commissioner for Information, Charles Aniagwu, who briefed reporters on the issue on Saturday in Asaba, said the officers were ambushed and killed around 1.30 p.m. on Friday on Ihiala-Orlu Road enroute Umuahia, while on official duty.
He gave the names of the slain officers as Inspectors Lucky Aleh, Celestine Nwadiokwu and Jude Obuh, who were attached to the Explosives Ordnance Disposal Unit in Government House, Asaba.
He said the late officers would be greatly missed for their contributions to the peace and development of Delta.
Mr Aniagwu described the killing of the officers as barbaric and unacceptable in a country seeking to be united again for peace and development.
"The officers met their untimely death while they were proceeding as an advanced team for the PDP National Campaign Rally in Abia.
"Unfortunately this particular team veered off from the convoy and took another route different from where the convoy was taking.
"They were ambushed along the Ihiala-Orlu Road en route Umuahia by non-state actors who eventually killed three of them in police uniform while the one on mufti escaped.
"We have recovered their corpse and we have also reached out to their families," he said.
The commissioner said some accounts of the unfortunate incident trending on social media were untrue.
He said the state government delayed announcing their untimely death because efforts were being made to reach out to their families before making the announcement.
Killers must be brought to book
Mr Aniagwu called on security agencies in the country to fish out the killers and bring them to the book so that Nigerians can once again live peacefully in any part of the country.
"What is happening in parts of this country today, particularly in the South-east, is not healthy for our development as a country because the elections are very very close.
"The security we are asking for is not just for the purpose of the elections. It is also something that everybody wants. We should be able to have security at every given time; that way, we would have development.
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"We must also plead with our brothers and sisters who may have taken guns on the account of what they see as agitation to know that the best way to help our people is to allow peace to reign," he said.
"Our people in the South-east are very industrious, they are commerce oriented and have developed love for one another over the years.
"We will plead with these our brothers to allow this kind of love that permeated the atmosphere in the time past in the South-east, to continue to pervade that environment.
"We are pleading with them to sheath their swords and begin to allow that love of which the people of the South-east have been known for over the years, so that as a people, we will continue to coexist."
Mr Aniagwu prayed for the repose of the souls of the slain officers and for God to comfort their families.
"As a government in Delta, we will be with their families in this their trying moments," he said.
(NAN)
