(PortHarcourt, Nigeria) The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State has cried out again, saying its members are being hunted down and killed through a notorious cult group which the party chairman named as Icelanders.
The party said the killings were allegedly targeting its members in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni local council area (ONELGA), trailing some of them to Port Harcourt in a hunt said to be orchestrated. The party said the mass killing was a kind of vengeance on the APC chieftains for the military operations that targeted cult leaders in the area.
The state party chairman, Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, stated on Tuesday, 16 February 2016, that the cult group allegedly working with a political rival party, invaded Omoku and environs where they murdered APC members. “By the last count, 26 persons were shot dead and some beheaded. Eyewitness accounts revealed that the attack lasted from early evening up till 10pm and despite calls to the Police for help, there was no response until the killers finished their dastardly mission and left with some of the heads of those they killed”.
The APC noted that a few hours later, the Rivers State Police Command came out with a statement blaming the killings on a fight between rival cult groups. “This is the most bizarre statement to come out of the Police because they have not, to this moment, named the suspected cult groups. We make bold to ask how Police arrive at their conclusion? Why was the Police unable to respond to SOS calls by victims and neighbours for the over five hours the killings took place on different streets of Omoku?”
The APC had recently petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari, the Inspector-General of Police, Minister of the Interior and others, alerting them of the threat to lives of the people of ONELGA.
The chairman said he was aware that groups in neighbouring Ahoada East and Ahoada West LGAs had also petitioned relevant authorities with detailed information on the victims of the spate of recent killings in their local councils and the suspects. “Sadly, there appears to be no response on the part of the Police and others to take necessary investigative action at least to unveil and prosecute those behind the killings in order to avert future occurrence”.
On January 14, 2016, he added, the APC, in a press statement, warned of a plan to commence the killing of APC members in ONELGA. The party said it had evidence that this came following security operations carried out by the military on January 11, 2016, at the house of one cult kingpin at Aligu village in ONELGA.
He said the cult group and their political sponsors allegedly held a meeting at night at Obohia in Omoku and allegedly concluded that prominent members of the APC would be eliminated anywhere they resided in the state. “They alleged that it is the prominent leaders of APC of the area that masterminded the raid by the military and the alleged destruction of cult king’s house.
The APC recalled warning its earlier call on relevant authorities to take the threat on the lives of its members of ONELGA origin and elsewhere very seriously and do the needful to protect the lives and property of everyone within and outside of ONELGA. “We emphasise that given the antecedents of “that particular cult group” and their political allies, they are very capable of carrying out their heinous threat especially in ONELGA.”
The party boss said in less than 24 hours of that warning, an APC Ward 6 chairman [Owotor] was shot dead on his street by gunmen, yet, the police have made not public the outcome of their investigation on the killing.
“Last week, a member of the APC of ONELGA origin, Monday Eleanya, was gunned down around Ada-George area of Port Harcourt where he lives. Still in shock over the death of Eleanya, last Friday, February 12, the orgy of killings, like an episode taken from a horror movie, played out at Omoku”, Ikanya further lamented.
The APC has therefore called on the President to come to the rescue of the people of ONELGA as the primary purpose of government anywhere in the world was the protection of lives and property of the citizens. “We do not hesitate to call for the instant sack of the leadership of any security agency that fails to help the government carry out this primary and all-important responsibility of protecting lives and property of the people. We also call on the Presidency, Minister of the Interior, Service Chiefs, the Inspector-General of Police and all those who have been petitioned over the insecurity in Rivers State especially in ONELGA, Ahoada East, Ahoada West and Abua/Odual LGAs axis to take urgent steps to stem the ongoing unrestrained killings that have turned the State into a shameful killing field”.
Meanwhile, the state government just banned use of motorcycles in four local council areas including ONELGA now ravaged by open killings, The PDP state chairman, Felix Obuah, was once the council boss of ONELGA and has large following in the area.
