Cultists’ Clash Claims Eight In Rivers

No fewer than eight people were, last Friday, gunned down in Ibaa Community in Emohua Local Government Area in Rivers State following a clash between two rival cult groups.
Four of the victims were reportedly beheaded and their heads taken away by the rampaging cultists.
A resident of the community, who did not want his name in print for security reasons, told The Tide at the weekend, that the incident was a reprisal attack.
According to him, the cult members, who are alleged members of Dey-Gbam, stormed the community around 3a.m, to avenge the death of their member who was killed by the Icelanders, last month.
“They killed over eight people. Four of their victims were beheaded.
“We were terrified when the cultists stormed our area but the cultists allayed our fears, saying that we should not run, and that they knew the people they were looking for.
“We are calling on the state government and security operatives in the state to send security personnel and restore peace in the troubled community.”
Efforts to reach the Community Development Committee (CDC) chairman of Ibaa, proved abortive as his mobile number was not reachable as at press time.
However, an All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain in the local government, Hon. Lucky Worluh, explained that two days before the incident, there was serious gun battle in the community between the two suspected cult groups.
He claimed that the cultists had taken over Emohua, urging the state government to partner with the LGA caretaker committee to ensure the safety and security of all residents, especially law-abiding people of the area.
Worluh said: “All we need now is immediate security mobilization of the area.
“Those given amnesty should be empowered and settled. Those given amnesty as repentant cultists should not left to roam the streets without any source of economic empowerment to keep them busy and make them contribute meaningfully to the development process. Wike should empower the boys,” he pleaded.
In his reaction, the Public Relations Officer of the Rivers State Police Command, Nnamdi Omoni, said personnel of the command had been drafted to the community to restore normalcy.
Omoni confirmed that it was cult reprisal that led to the killings, adding that the number of casualties had not been ascertained.
“Cultists invaded the community today, and killed some people believed to be rival cultists in reprisal. It is a cult-related incident. The police are aware of it.
“The commissioner of police in the state has mobilised personnel to the community to restore peace and smoke out the perpetrators of the act,” Omoni added.

Susan Serekara-Nwikhana