The first incident, which claimed four lives, occurred on Saturday evening, along Eastern-Bypass area of the Marine Base, while the second occurred some few hours later, along a popular hotel in Oroworukwo Community in the D/Line area.
It was gathered that the assailants, suspected to be members of a cult group, stormed a restaurant close to the bridge along the road and shot four persons dead, while others sustained bullet wounds.
A source said the corpses were carried away by policemen who arrived at the scene shortly after the bandits had escaped.
Similarly, a yet-to-be identified woman was kidnapped on Sunday, at about 1.30 p.m, on Echue Street, Mile 2, Diobu axis of Port Harcourt, by unidentified armed men.
It was gathered that the victim was coming from one of the churches in the area, when she was abducted by suspected commercial kidnappers with her jeep.
The suspects were said to have had escaped through the Echue waterfront with the woman into the creeks, with a motorised fibre (speed boat), after police gave them a chase, forcing them to abandon the car.
Meanwhile, a suspected cultist, simply identified as Peter, was buried on Saturday, at the Port Harcourt cemetery, heightening the tension in the metropolis.
Peter was murdered on February 14, when he attended a party organised for a girlfriend of a member of his cult group.
Efforts to get the Rivers State police command’s reaction proved abortive, as the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Ahmad Muhammad, neither picked his calls nor responded to an SMS sent to his telephone.
Tags
Crime