"I begged the gunman to kill me and leave my son" - 78-year-old father of driver killed in Edo State

The distraught father of a commercial bus driver who was shot dead in Edo State has recounted how he begged the gunmen to spare his son's life and kill him instead.

41-year-old Samuel Irabor, was shot dead by two gunmen at his residence Benin City on Thursday, June 22.

According to Pa Daniel Irabor, 78, his son was washing clothes at the back of the house when the assailants arrived and opened fired on him. The deceased ran into the house with bullet wounds, hid under his mother's bed but the gunmen chased, dragged and shot him the second time. Speaking to newsmen, Pa Irabor said he begged the assailants not to kill his son that they but did not listen to him.

"When I heard the first gunshot I ran out, I saw blood stain in my passage, then a young man with a gun ran into my passage, I begged the gunman to just kill me and leave my son, he pushed me away from the door, dragged Samuel who was bleeding and shot him again," he said.

"The, another boy with a gun entered, he said: 'you sure say he don die?' I told him to go and check whether he is still breathing, they left" he added.

He explained that the deceased, about two months ago, had a quarrel with one boy at Ring Road but that he could not say who was behind the killing.

The spokesman of the Edo State Police Command, DSP Moses Nkombe, who confirmed the incident, said it was a cult related killing and called for useful information that would assist in apprehending the perpetrators.

The body has been deposited to undisclosed hospital mortuary by operatives of Ogida Police Division.