From Tony John, Port Harcourt

ARMED men allegedly beheaded a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Omoku, Ogba/ Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Riv­ers State, Mr. Frankline Obi in his home at the weekend.
The assailants also mur­dered his wife, Ihuoma and his 18-year-old first son, Bestman.
The tragedy occurred last Saturday night at their residence located at Uso­mini quarters in Omoku.
The killing occurred about 48 hours after an­other APC member, Mr. Ipalibo Black-Duke was shot dead and his body carried away by the assail­ants in Abonnema, Akuku- Toru Local Government area of the state.
Obi, until his untimely death, was the APC leader for Ward 4 in the area.
However, Commis­sioner of Police in the state, Mr. Musa Kimo, confirmed the murder of the APC Ward 4 leader in Omoku.
Mr. Kimo said the gun­men stormed the victims’ home at about 9:00pm last Saturday.
He regretted that the police were not contacted while the assailants carried out the dastardly act.
“I am here on a condo­lence visit to the family of the deceased and to assess security situation here in Omoku with the intention to restrategise in order to put urgent security mea­sures in place to forestall future occurrence.
“I was informed that the gunmen came masked and operated for about 20 minutes without anybody contacting the police. The DPO of the area was in­formed about the incident from Port Harcourt. We cannot be everywhere. We are pleading with the pub­lic to work together with us.
“People should have confidence and they should have called the po­lice and the we will act,” Kimo appealed.
Meanwhile, the APC has described the grue­some murder of its ward chairman alongside his wife and son as ‘shock­ing’.
APC, in a statement is­sued by its Publicity Sec­retary, Chris Finebone, said: “The killing of our Franklyn Obi is shocking. Late Obi was the APC Ward 4 chairman; he man­aged and moderated the ONELGA APC meeting last Thursday in Omoku and by Saturday, he was killed and beheaded while his wife and son were killed.”
Also, the Oba (Eze Ogba) of Ogbaland, Sir Chukumela Nnam Obi II, who spoke when the state police commissioner visited him in his palace, expressed sadness over the killing, even as he ex­pressed the belief that the killings would one day cease. The monarch said: “Those who don’t want us to have peace will never know peace. We have done a peace march. With churches everywhere, it is shocking that we still have such killing in ONELGA.”