THE grief of the families of Benjamin Abughul, an agent of the State Security Service (SSS) and Christian Ibekwe of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) of the Nigeria Police, two security agents slain by suspected cultist in Akwanga, Nasarawa State last week, is made worse as both families are contesting over one lifeless, swollen and blacked-beyond-physical- recognition body that they assume its their relations’.

Although the late Abughul’s elder brother, Kenneth had two days before the corpse of his brother had gone beyond recognition, identified and confirmed his late brother’s remains in the presence of some the slain SSS Inspector’s colleagues, the Ibekwes are saying the almost decomposing corpse looks like their brother’s too.

The case became so complicated that the Director of the SSS in the state and the Nasarawa State Commissioner of Police, had to retain custody of the corpse and order for a deoxyribonucleric acid (DNA) test to ascertain whose body it is.

Late Abughul, the breadwinner of his family, was not married. His aged mother, Mbasen Abughul who has being bed ridden for 10 years after a stroke, who could not hold back her tears but barely managed to mumble a few words that conveyed the intense anguish that could not be concealed.  “He is gone, never to come smiling at me again, but I will soon join him,” she said.

This is the agony of many families who could not claim the corpses of their loved ones for proper burial after the massacre of the combined team of Mobile Policemen and SSS detailed to arrest an allegedly well known spellbinder and his devotes in Asaikyo village near Lafia.

The reaction that has trailed the death of more than 100 security agents by the Ombatse militia group in Assakio near Lafia, has continued to draw concern from all Nigerians.

Earlier on, as news of the unfortunate incidence broke, 18 bodies were said to have being recovered, riddled with bullets, maimed and half burnt. Then a protest by the wives of some of the mobile policemen, drafted from the No 30 Police Mobile Squadron, Akwanga, whose bodies were yet to be recovered. They mounted roadblocks on the Akwanga-Lafia road from 9 am in the morning to 8 pm in the evening, everyday from Thursday  May 9 to Tuesday May 14. Passengers coming from Abuja to Makurdi and vice versa, were stranded for the rest of the day. A serving Minister was also caught in the milieu and was heard saying he empathised with the bereaved women and their action is understood, since it is the responsibility of the government to fish out the perpetrators of the crime and recover the bodies of the slain security agents. But when some of the bodies where recovered, the women removed the roadblocks to free the traffic on the road.

Governor of the state, Tanko Al-Makura last week gave the wives and/or next of kin to the deceased N1 million. However, reports allege that the Nasarawa State government is neck deep in the whole imbroglio as some sources have it that the arrest order on the militia group was politically-motivated.