In January this year, five armed men believed to be a dreaded cult group, murdered two students in Ekosodin near the University of Benin, Ugbowo campus. The hit men arrived the students’ community at 7. 46 am that fateful day in a dark Mercedes 190 Benz car.
One of the victims was a light-skinned girl in her twenties, identified as Pamela Ndi Amaka, a 100- level computer science student of the University of Benin. She was shot several times by the hit-men who chased her from her hostel to another hostel where they killed her with another male student suspected to be her boyfriend and simply called Odion.
THE UGLY INCIDENTS
This is one of the ugly incidents the people of Edo State have to battle day in day out. Cult attacks have become a recurring nightmare in the state. These cult members have become very powerful in the society. They are not just found among students or youths but also among the elderly and the rich.
Some landlords even secure the services of these cultists to evict stubborn tenants from their houses. Some people use them to punish their perceived enemies. In fact, according to the former Edo State Commissioner of Police, Abubakar Danlami, cult members were fingered as being behind most of the kidnappings that had taken place in Edo State of recent. Some of the kidnappers were students especially from the state government owned university, Ambrose Ali University, Ekpoma.
The most recent cult war erupted again in Benin, the state capital recently, leaving at least fifteen people dead and several others injured.
Although the cause of the clash said to be between Eiye and Black Axe confraternities, is unknown, impeccable sources hinted that the battle was a spillover from the College of Education, Ekiadolor, near Benin City, where cult rivalries claimed two lives recently.
So far, police sources have confirmed eight casualties and six persons on the danger list at different hospitals in the city. Investigations however revealed that Ogida and Useh quarters are the worst hit, recording a death toll of at least seven within six hours.
The rampaging youths who, at various spots, pumped bullets into their victims with reckless abandon, traced some of their victims to their family houses where they brutally killed them before the watchful eyes of their parents.
CULTISM: OVERSTRETCHING THE POLICE
The serial killings forced men of the Ogida police station to hire a private vehicle in the task to evacuate the corpses of the cultists that littered the area when the station patrol van broke down.
As the fight raged into the night with sporadic gun shots which sent residents scampering for safety, police spread their dragnets to halt the mindless killings.
The dust had hardly settled when one Erokpadame Asemota and two others were shot dead.
Confirming the incident, Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Peter Ogboi, described it as unfortunate. He said men of the command have swung into action to arrest the situation.
It will be recalled that a similar bloody cult war between, Black Axe and Maphite confraternity reportedly claimed over 15 lives in March in Benin City.
In Edo State, these blood-thirsty vampires who still unleash a reign of terror on institutions of learning include but not limited to Buccaneers founded in 1972, Neo Black Movement [Back Axe] founded in 1984, Eiye cult Vickings founded in 1993, Maphites Mafia, and KKK222.
Ladies are not left out of these cult movements. The cult groups among women include Amazons, Daughters of Jezebel, Supreme Daughters of Medusa, the Dirty Virgins, White Angels and Bra Bra Sisters, among others.
A GROWING VICE
These cult groups not only exist in our tertiary institutions in the state but have also infiltrated primary schools, secondary schools, okada riders, mechanics, agberos, etc.
It is even on record that most of the school authorities in the state, especially the higher institutions, engage the services of cult members to secure a peaceful reign from opponents, while most politicians use the cult members as body guards and security men.
It would be recalled that during the crisis that engulfed the Edo State House of Assembly over the removal of former Speaker, Zakawanu Garba, dangerous weapons like axe, iron rods, tear gas, etc, were freely used by the members of the House of Assembly . This was seen by the public as an evidence of cultism among the members.
Police Public Relations Officer, Peter Ogboi, an Assistant Suprintendent of Police (ASP), who confirmed the threat of cultism in the state appealed to parents to monitor the type of relationship their wards and children keep. He said the police is equal to the task and will continue to treat cultists as armed robbers .
Everybody here knows the police will never get the cooperation of the public in fighting cultism. This is because, most parents support their children who belong to cult groups. The police even recently paraded a seventy-year-old man arrested for hiding his son from arrest. The son who is a member of a cult group, was caught with arms which he claimed was given to him by his father.
People are always afraid to speak against cultism in the state as the cultists are powerful and deadly.
A social commentator and lecturer at the University of Benin, Dr James Osamudia, said the cult members behaveal like Frankenstein Monsters ready to tear down the entire university with their powerful and rich sponsors. He said it would be difficult to fight the menace in Edo State because of their strength.
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