10 Killed In Cults Clash In Akwa Ibom

 

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.