About 10 persons have been killed in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital, following a violence clash among three rival cult groups within the last two weeks.
The fracas which involvesd Vikings,
Red Skin, and KKK, alias Klansmen was said to have started on Akpan Essien
Street, where already drunk youths, who were engaged in political discourse
later degenerated in.... a heated argument, which resulted in fierce exchange of
punches and a free-for-all show.
It was also gathered that the clash
which started on Friday was hijacked and sustained by high ranking politicians
who were desperate to clear their ways for 2015 general elections.
Nigerian Tribune gathered that one of
the victims, a driver of the state Government House, Mr Anieyie Essien, 27, was
killed on Friday, while returning home from work, and was buried in his
father’s compound on Saturday.
An eyewitness told the Nigerian
Tribune that Anieyie was shot by some unidentified cultists.
“After Anieyie had gone down,
one of the cultists shouted ‘finish him, confirm’ and afterwards brought
out cutlasses and macheted him to death,” he narrated.
The source, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, said after Anieyie had been killed, the entire Asuquo street, where
the event took place, was abandoned for fear of reprisal attack.
It was also gathered that corpse of
many other victims were picked on the streets of Uyo. One was picked along
Udoumana, near Akpan Andem Market and was taken to the mortuary.
Other areas where corpses were said to
have been picked were Akpa Ubeh, around Itam Junction and Iboko Street.
Some of the people, who escaped death
by the whiskers are receiving treatment in some undisclosed medical
facilities within and outside the capital city.
Aniefiok Ekarika, a 19-year-old
student of the University of Uyo, who is receiving treatment for bullet wounds,
told the Nigerian Tribune that he was shot at the back while going to a barbing
salon for refusing to surrender his phone when he was accosted by a group of
armed men.
Some residents of Udo Ikpe, Urua
Udofia, Udoinwang; Anderson, Akpa Edor and Asukwo Akpan streets, within Uyo
metropolis, where some of the corpses were picked, lamented that they had been
living in fear, as cultists had been harassing and terrorising them in the last
one month.
It was observed that people living
around Sand Beach in Ewet Housing, where the cultists were said to be
operating, could no longer go out once it is 7 o’clock for fear of being
killed, kidnapped or raped.
The state Police Public Relations
Officer, Mr Etim Dickson, who confirmed the clash, said the police had arrested
over 10 persons suspected to be cultists, in connection with the gory
development.
He said they were in the state police
headquarters and would be charged to court soon.
“We are aware that for some time now,
cultists have been killing themselves. We have made some arrests through the
combined efforts of the Quick Response Squad and the policemen of the A
Division. We will make sure we prosecute them, no matter who their parents are
in the society,” he said.
-Nigerian Tribune
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