Three corpses of missing Christmas day fun seekers recovered from Buruku River in Benue

The Benue state Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, has said three corpses of supposed Christmas Day fun-seekers have been recovered from River Buruku after they were declared missing in Buruku Local Government Area of the state.

The Command in a statement issued Thursday in Makurdi by its Public Relations Officer, Deputy Superintendent of Corps, Michel Ejelikwu said the corpses were recovered after a search by divers.

Part of the statement by the Command read, “On Friday December 24, 2021 at about 10:20am the Command got credible Intelligence about the illegal gathering of youths in hundreds of thousands at the River Buruku for what they termed as Picnic and Carnival.

“The Benue State Government and the Tiv Traditional Council had at different intervals banned this Carnival owing to the negative vices that take place there.

“However the youths still went ahead with the carnival. The Command on the strength of the Intelligence deployed men to the location on the December 25, 2021 in collaboration with sister agencies to maintain law and order and if possible stop the carnival from holding; but the youths over-numbered the security officials.

“However, on Sunday December 26, 2021 there were unsubstantiated reports of missing persons, which was confirmed on Monday December 27, 2021 after three dead bodies were recovered by a search team of divers at about 10am.”

Mr. Ejelikwu gave the names of the remains of those recovered to include, 18 year old Chiater Achir from Akaajime Gboko, 20 year old Aondoso Iorliam, from Mbalagh Buruku and 30 year old Aondogu Gbir from Yandev North Gboko.