Nigeria, June 11, 2016 – At least 9 people have been arrested as cultists engage policemen in fierce gun battle in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
We gathered that the patrol team made up of soldiers and the operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) engaged the cultists at Elekahia Housing Estate, near Liberation Stadium.
Eyewitnesses who identified the cult group as ex-militants, said the group has been fomenting trouble, hence the invitation of the soldiers and SARS.
We gathered that residents fled their flats during the gun battle just as motorists and commuters around the stadium road axis ran helter-skelter in a bid to escape been hit by bullets.
“It is unclear to state what really happened, what caused it, but there was confusion because a lot of people were running up and down”, Rumukalagbon an eye witness said.
Spokesman of the Rivers State Police command, Ahmad Mohammad, DSP, who confirmed the incident, said that nine of the ex-militants had been arrested, just as he said that no security operative was shot in the incident.
“Nine ex-militants have been arrested. No policeman was shot in the course of the arrest”, he said.
Meanwhile, Governor Nyesom Wike, has restated his pledge to flush out cultists in the state, stressing his readiness to take the fight to them wherever they are.
The governor, who spoke when former Senate President, Sen. David Mark, commissioned the 8-kilometre Ozuoba-Ogbogoro-Rumuolumeni road in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area, noted that security agencies have been given the free hand to deal decisively with cultists.
“Since they have said that I will not sleep, they will not sleep. Anyone who is arrested, will be dealt with in line with the tenets of the law. Whether you belong to the PDP or APC, you will not be spared if you are a cultist”.
