Cult Groups Register Females Through Raping- Police

Abia State Police Command has paraded 38 suspects for alleged various criminal offences, including eight members of two cult groups which initiate females into their fold by raping them and taking of blood oath. The men, who do the raping number between seven and 10, the Police said.

Parading the suspects including 19 kidnap suspects, four armed robbery suspects, three suspects for unlawful possession of arms and 12 suspected cultists before newsmen in Umuahia, yesterday, the Abia State Police Commissioner, Mr. Jonathan Johnson, gave the name of the cult groups, which indulge in marathon sex as a process for the registration of female members, as the Liver Brothers and Verqueens Cult.

Johnson, who was represented by the Command’s Public Relations Officer, Mr.Ali Okechukwu, said members of the cult groups operate in Umuahia, the Abia State capital, and environs.

He said they were nabbed by a detachment of Police detectives while initiating new members at Ugwunchara in Umuagu village, in Umuahia North Local Government Area on December 14, last year.  He said the Police, acting on a tip off, cordoned off the area and arrested the suspects who have confessed to being members of the cult groups. “Their initiation procedure of ladies includes raping a new member by seven to 10 men and taking of oath,” Johnson said.

The Commissioner said one of the female suspects has confessed that she was the leader of the Verqueens cult while another female member, has confirmed that she was raped by members of the Liver Brothers and Verqueens Cult as part of her registration process.

He said investigations were still in progress as the alleged  sponsor of the cult groups was still at large, promising that the Police would comb him out soon. Three persons and a 300 Level Religious Studies  student of the Abia State University, Uturu, were among those paraded for alleged cult activities.

Among those paraded as kidnappers were two brothers, Chinedu Okpara and Victor Okpara, who allegedly threatened a Police Officer, one Inspector Uzochukwu Onyekwe of Mopol 28 that they would kidnap his pregnant wife and son unless he pays them N1 million ransom.