Anambra police command parades 48 suspected cultists and 2 native doctors

IGP  Solomon Arase

THE Anambra State police command yesterday paraded 48 suspected cultists who allegedly belong to the notorious Vikings Confraternity. Also paraded were two native doctors said to be allegedly preparing charms for armed robbers and kidnappers.

This came as the Abia State police Command said its men from Umuobiakwa police station in Obingwa Local Government Area of Abia State arrested two armed robbery suspects even as four suspected kidnappers were seriously wounded in a gun battle with its men at Uratta Primary School in Isiala Ngwa North council.

The Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, in Anambra, Mr. Ali Okechukwu said the suspected cultists were arrested in various parts of the state as they were carrying out initiation of new members.

Among items recovered from them were guns, cartridges, machetes, large quantities of Indian hemp and other dangerous weapons.

Places where they were picked up, he said, include Nnewi, Ogidi, Awka, Awkuzu, Ihiala, among others.

According to Okechukwu, most of the suspects were students in various tertiary institutions, adding that all of them would soon appear in court since investigations into their cases have been concluded.

He said that the arrest of the suspects followed a tip-off by members of the public and urged the people of Anambra State to continue to support the police in its efforts to rid the state of crime.

The wounded four kidnap suspects in Abia, according to the State Police Public Relation Officer, Ezekiel Onyeke, a Deputy Superintendent of Police were members of a gang of suspected kidnappers who planned and attempted to kidnap a produce merchant in the area.

According to him, the four suspects who had perfected plot to kidnap their victim ran into the waiting hands of the police men who were monitoring the situation following a tip-off.