One dies in Owerri as police nab suspected cultists

OPERATIVES of the Imo State Police Command have killed one suspected cultist identified as Chimaobi Iheme and arrested two during a gun battle.

Iheme and other cult members, who had converged on Egbu Community Girls Secondary School for a meeting on Sunday, June 28, 2015, were said to have started shooting immediately they sighted the police.

Iheme, who was hit by a bullet, was said to have died while receiving treatment in an undisclosed hospital.

Confirming the incident, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Austin Evbakhavbokun, said security operatives arrested two suspected cultists. He identified the suspects as Opara Chinwekene (25) and Amarikwa Tochukwu Franklyn (24), stating that they were members of Neo Black and Black Axe cult groups respectively.

The suspects, according to Evbakhabokun, are from Mpama village in Owerri North Local Government Area of Imo State.

He further disclosed that security operatives, who acted on a tip-off, swooped on the cult members at Egbu Community Girls Secondary School in Owerri while they were holding a meeting.

Evbakhavbokun said the cultists had been terrorizing the Egbu community and its environs before their arrest.

“They were 15 in number in that meeting. On sighting the police, the cultists engaged the police in a gun duel. Two of the cult members received gun shots and were arrested while others escaped.

“One Chimaobi Iheme (SAKA), who was known as Lord gave up the ghost while receiving treatment,” the commissioner of police, who spoke through the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Administration), Mr. Dave Akinremi, added.

He listed items recovered from them as three locally-made pistols, seven live cartridges, four expended cartridges, two cutlasses, one axe, six GSM phones, one tricycle and one motorcycle.

One of the suspected cultists apprehended by the police, Amarikwa, said he was a student of Federal Polytechnic Nekede Owerri.

Amarikwa said, “We are only cultists and not armed robbers. We were all at the meeting when police came. My friend was stubborn and that was why the police shot him on the leg.”