Posted by By Emma Una/ Calabar on
Twenty-seven members of cult groups who, in the past three weeks, have been terrorising residents of Calabar, the Cross River state capital, are now in police net.
Twenty-seven members of cult groups who, in the past three weeks, have been terrorising residents of Calabar, the Cross River state capital, are now in police net.
The cultists, who are members of Skyloo (Junior Vikings) and the Black Axe, went on the rampage by attacking one another at the end of the University of Calabar degree exams.
Residents of the serene city were thrown into panic during the bloody clashes between the cultists, which left one of them dead.
According to sources, trouble started when some Black Axe members went to a notorious hard drug joint at Ebito Street, after their examination, to celebrate the completion of their degree examinations and they were attacked by the Skyloo group.
'When they got to the joint, some members of Skyloo were already high on drugs and drinks. They saw the presence of the Black Axe members as an opportunity to settle scores which have been brewing between them for some time, since these were their final days in the university,' one of our sources said.
Many of the Black Axe members were wounded in the ensuing battle. One of them was reportedly killed. After the attack, the Black Axe members regrouped and went on a revenge mission.
'They combed our street for members of the Skyloo group for several hours. When we called the police and they came, they could not withstand the fire power of the boys and they had to run away,' said the source.
This fight went on for several days and other cult groups like the Idang Boys, the BaySide Boys, which are basically made of the area boys and hoodlums, joined in the fray as they saw it as an opportunity to loot and destroy property.
Several shops and cars were looted and vandalized in the aftermath of the crisis. Orascom (a company constructing a cement factory in Calabar) staff, who were recently laid off, saw that as an opportunity to visit their vengeance on other staff and management staff who they accused of being responsible for their plight.
The Police Public Relations Officer for the Cross River Police Command, ASP Thomas Opene, refused to disclose the names of the arrested cultists for 'fear of jeopardising our investigations as we are determined to get to the sponsors of these clashes in Calabar, in order to stop gangsterism in this city.'
He said the Skyloos have elder brothers who are the Vikings and the eldest who are the Nursemen. 'Though the Nursemen and the Vikings are not directly linked with this crisis, that is not to say they cannot lend a hand to these hoodlums. We want to investigate and get to the root of everything.' The cultists, ASP Okpene said, would have to be charged to court at the end of police investigations.