Posted by The Port Harcourt Telegraph on
Many persons injured Tuesday where receiving treatment as doctors and nurses battled to save their lives.
Many persons injured Tuesday where receiving treatment as doctors and nurses battled to save their lives.
At the UPTH, doctors and nurses had to cope with a more than normal level of blood-soaked and near-dying victims.
They were victims of the bloody clashes that had erupted around Potts Johnson, Aggrey Road and Bonny Street.
Men with knives and afterwards with guns were on the prowl and no one was safe.
Government swung into action deploying countless number of policemen and soldiers.
Their mandate: to maintain peace at all cost .
Apart from the injured, at least two persons were confirmed dead.
Uche was one such person. He was shot from the back and his bowel blown open.
He really didn't have a chance and his assailants had been dead on target.
It is not known if Uche belonged. One source said he had been neutral, but his assailants may have taken him for an Ateke man.
Abebe another known associate of Ateke was literarily butchered.
Those who cornered used knives and matchets to despatch him to the world beyond.
Another known Ateke man simply referred to as Ecomog received severe injuries but as at 2.35am Wednesday, he was still alive according to Telegraph investigations.
Telegraph's Editor-in-Chief had stayed up all night receiving calls from several sources.
This publication had warned trouble was in the works.
It had said quite accurately, as events had proved that there would be skirmishes.
Tuesday, barely after 24 hours, violence was back in the driving seat, driven by growing suspicion among cult groups and what seemingly looks like a fight for control of territory and relevance .
Several people ran at the sight of the boys when they struck at Potts Johnson.
They attacked anything in sight and took away phone sets, according to eyewitnesses.
At Bonny Street, the fracas was more intense. Several people got injured.
They were however luckier than Uche, an Ibo boy and Abebe.
Reports suggest that the Godfather, Ateke Tom leader of the Niger Delta Vigilante was saddened by the turn of events.
Attempts to get him on line. One aide told the Telegraph to call back in two hours.
Asari could not be reached as well. His phone was off.
The Telegraph got to one of his aides who claimed to be out buying diesel.
This publication didn't get back to the two warlords whose known phones had been switched off.
Time was running out and productions pressures were on the mount.
At last, what was feared had come to the surface.
Trouble was, it was the old township areas in Port Harcourt that were caught in the throes of conflict and death.
But which group could have carried out the attack?
Accusing fingers are pointing in the direction of the Greenlanders.
The Greenlanders are sworn enemies of the Vigilante.
Their attack, if indeed they did, was proof of two things.
First, the fact that the Greenlanders who still live outside the peace and the oath-taking may be uncomfortable with Ateke's men gaining further foothold, given the fact that the Soboma faction of the Vigilante may have backed off.
It was proof of the fact that the suspected accord between Soboma's people and the Greenlanders may have really taken place.
In the cult business like in politics, there are no permanent enemies. What you may likely have are permanent interests, one analyst said in Port Harcourt.
What will Ateke do?
That is the question. With Asari and Ateke at peace, going by their public utterances, Ateke may not count on Asari's nuisance value
Besides, months ago it appeared Asari and the Greenlanders were headed for a split.
Will the feuding groups stop their war which is beginning to rear its head.
Small arms were in operation. Many here hope the cults won't draw the big ones.
Whatever happens, the way this war is conducted, should the combatants persist, would determine whether or not the groups that had claimed to have returned their guns actually returned them.
It would prove a major test to the police force as well.