Lightning, flood kill pregnant women, farmers in Delta

•Gunmen abduct 24 passengers

Some youths yesterday recovered the bodies of two pregnant women and two men killed by flood a fortnight ago in Omeligboma, Oko community in Oshimili South Local Government Area of Delta State.

The four people were said to have drowned when the boat they boarded to escape the ravaging flood capsized.

The captain of the boat, however, survived the accident.

The Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Onome Onovwakpoyeya, confirmed the recovery of the bodies.

“The corpses were already decomposing but the families requested to bury them and we granted their requests.”
ALSO, two farmers were reportedly killed by lightning following a heavy rain yesterday at Mile 5, in Ugbolu community of the council.

According to sources, lightning struck death the farmers – man and woman – at a makeshift shop near the bank of the River Niger, while five people, including one Mrs. Okah, survived.

“They were struck by lightning and left with scars and dark bodies,” a source said.

The PPRO, who confirmed the incident, said their bodies had been deposited in the morgue of the Federal Medical Centre in Asaba.

MEANWHILE, gunmen on Wednesday evening abducted 24 passengers along the Agbarho town section of the Warri-Ughelli Expressway in Delta State.

The Guardian learnt that the gangsters emerged from the bush at about 6 pm and forced three vehicles and a tricycle, popularly called Keke, to a stop, after shooting their tyres and glass windows.

The hoodlums were said to have abducted all passengers in an 18-seter bus belonging to an inter-state transport company in the state.

It was learnt that they kidnapped all four occupants of the Keke, and the two occupants of a Toyota Sienna.

The abandoned vehicles were stained with blood, fuelling fears that some of the passengers and motorists could have sustained gunshot injuries in the incident, which occurred about close to Agbarho Police Station.

However, Onovwakpoyeya told The Guardian yesterday that four of the victims had been rescued.
She dismissed the speculations that robbers or herdsmen carried out the operation.