Residents of Benin City have applauded the recent clampdown on suspected cultists in the city just as they urged the police to be firm and professional in their investigations.
The residents’ commendations followed a joint operation last Thursday during which identified flashpoints were raided and no fewer than 51 suspected cultists apprehended within Benin metropolis.
While expressing their support for the raid, the inhabitants enjoined the police to be thorough in their investigations by granting unconditional bail to those found innocent after screening.
The residents also appealed to Edo State Police Command to be firm and not yield to pressure from any individual, group or quarter to release anyone found wanting in the cult-related disturbances that plagued Benin City in recent times.
“Police have done the needful, I commend them, but they should not allow their efforts to just end at their station. They should take further steps to arraign whoever is found wanting no matter whose ox is gored,” said one Fr. Duncan.
“They should thereafter go after sponsors of this endemic menace. We saw in the past how a Commissioner of Police, when our son Solomon Arase was the IGP, went after leaders of cult groups, arrested and paraded them before journalists at the Edo State Police Command headquarters in Benin City.
“I don’t want to mention names, but the record of the disgrace is there, police can replicate and sustain that. The arrest of their foot soldiers is a step in the right direction; it will keep them and their nuisance in the trenches.
“The police authorities should equally look inward and purge themselves of bag elements. Some of them are deeply involved in cultism; they try to frustrate such clampdown,” he said.
Investigation by our correspondent revealed that the clampdown has forced some youths to go into hiding as the senseless killings witnessed in parts of the state capital in the past three weeks have abated since the raids were conducted.
Further checks revealed that some relaxation joints in the city centre notorious for harbouring suspected criminals have been recording abysmal patronage since the operation.
“My neighbour who owns that beer and pepper-soup joint locked his customers inside when he heard that police were moving from one spot to another arresting whoever they suspected allows his customers to smoke Igbo (Indian hemp) and take dangerous drugs.
“That last Thursday, his customers were advised to leave the bar one by one that afternoon and since then this street is now calm, no noise and inhalation of Igbo smoke,” an aged resident of Medical Stores area told our correspondent.
A visit to the state police command headquarters in Benin City weekend revealed unusual presence of advanced parents and some individuals described as capable of wielding influence.
It was also observed that the visitors were unable to obtain instant audience of two heads of tactical squads whose body language revealed undivided attention as they focused on their work in their offices.
The office of the Anti-cultism Squad was strangely less busy as the officer-in-charge was said to be out about 4:17pm when our reporter visited last Friday.
Checks revealed, however, that among worst-hit areas of the violence are Okhoro Medical Stores Road and Amagba Community, all in Benin City.
Commenting on the clampdown, the Police Public Relations Officer, Edo State Police Command, SP Chidi Nwabuzor, said tactical squads of the command in collaboration with operatives of the Edo State Security Network carried out the operation in Benin metropolis.
SP Nwabuzor disclosed that the raids were ordered by the commissioner of police in the state, CP Mohammed Dankwara.
“Recently there was upsurge of secret cult rivalry and killings in Benin metropolis. Because of this ugly incident that created panic to the good citizens of Edo State and the general public, the Commissioner of Police, Edo State Command, CP Mohammed Dankwara, gave a marching order to the tactical teams and operatives of Edo State Police Command to go after them and smoke them out from wherever they are.
“This was carried out on Thursday (July 13) by operatives of Edo State Police Command in collaboration with operatives of Edo State Security Network. This operation yielded a target result as the operatives arrested a total number of 51 cultists who have made statements and confessed to be members of secret cult confraternity,” he said.
