Cultists Murder Five Policemen In Rivers

Rampaging cult members yesterday killed five policemen attached to 30 Mobile Police Force (MPF), Yenagoa, Bayelsa State. The cult members ambushed the policemen at Okobie on the East-West Road in Ahoada West Local Government Area of Rivers State while on their way to Yenogoa.

The policemen were returning from Yobe State where they had gone on assignment. It is not yet clear whether or not the killing was carried out by either the Greenlanders or Icelanders cult groups which, apart from occasionally engaging in clashes, are also linked to kidnapping for ransom.

Okobie is the community where a 33,000-capacity tanker crashed three years ago, spilled its contents and burst into flame. Over 200 people were roasted in that incident. A man in Ahoada claimed that tension had been brewing in the community among cult groups since last Friday.

According to him, one of the cult groups had in a letter threatened to deal with non-indigenes of Ekpeye kingdom if they did not vacate the area before May 16. He said:

“The threat has to do with some armed youths that are loyal to a monarch in the area. These boys have vowed to do anything to attack the ‘royal boys’. “Just last Friday, they sent out a warning that the non-indigenes should leave the area before the 16th of this month.

They threatened to deal seriously with the other boys who are loyal to the monarch.” The Rivers State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Ahmad Muhammad, confirmed the killing in Port Harcourt yesterday.

Muhammad said the command would stop at nothing to bring the killers of the policemen to justice. The PPRO said the command was yet to identify the criminals behind the killing.

According to him, the killing demonstrates the sacrifice policemen make in the course of service. He said: “We are deeply pained by the senseless and barbaric killing of our colleagues attached to 30 MPF, Yenagoa, who were ambushed in the ear-ly hours of today at Okobie en route Yenagoa. “Today’s tragedy again demonstrated the enormous calamities we face and witness in the course of our job.

We put our lives on line every day to confront crime and violence in our communities.” Apart from Ahoada West, where the killings took place, cult members are also terrorising Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area, and Ahoada East Local Government Area, where they recently struck at Ula-Upata and another community and killed almost 20 people.

The cult members beheaded some people during the attack, which forced the authorities to deploy more security operatives in the area. Thousands of residents have fled some communities in the areas to Port Harcourt owing to upsurge in kidnapping for ransom and assassinations.