Cultism forces curfew in PH as over 100 gangs roam free

Those who still regard cultism to be an underlying or minor menace in Rivers and some other may wake up one day to realize that cult gangs have overrun the state and dictate what happens. It is already close to it.

Already, their activities have forced a 24-hour curfew in the Rumuokoro area of Port Harcourt, which is a major entry point into the Garden City from two major axes of PH; the Airport/owerri axis and the Warri/ Bayelsa axis.

Their activities are said to have affected the flyover construction project at Rimuokoro. The state government has had to admit that much, and imposed curfew. There can be no clearer sign that the matter has got out of hand. It looks like the boys have shared out the state into territories and left a small parcel for the governor.

Cultism in the state and region is traced to 1984 in the Uniport. Now, it is everywhere. Several policies and actions have been initiated by the Rivers State government from the Peter Odili days when the wife, Mary, led women on lamentation spree ending in enacting harsher laws. It rather grew.

The Nyesom Wike administration tried amnesty again to mop up guns and rehabilitate the boys but many say few guns turned up but killings intensified. Now, the governor has started imposing curfews in out-of-hand areas, but which area is not out of hand?

Thus, the battle to save Port Harcourt and Rivers State from ravaging menace of violent cult activities has taken a new turn as Gov Wike slammed a 24.hour curfew in parts of the state capital for two full weeks.

The governor stated in a state broadcast Sunday night November 22, 2020, that the violence was becoming unbearable in the Rumuokoro areas, thereby affecting a flyover work going on in the area.

The governor has also warned that government would spare no efforts to deal appropriately with anyone who decides to disturb peace and security in the State with cult activities and associated violence and killings.

Governor Wike explained that decision to impose the curfew was taken after the State Security Council meeting on Sunday in Port Harcourt.

He explained that the Rivers State Government was seriously disturbed by the recent upsurge of cult activities and related violence and killings around the adjoining areas of the Okoro-nu-odu flyover in Obio/akpor Local Government Area.

The governor stated that government has repeatedly warned misguided youths that engaging in cultism because of its abhorrent anti-social effect on society.

The governor directed security agencies to enforce strict compliance with the curfew and arrest and summarily prosecute any person, trader or vehicle that may attempt to violate the curfew.

“Again, we wish to warn that community leaders that allow cultism and related activities to thrive unabated in their communities would be treated as collaborators to the resulting crimes and dealt with accordingly.

“We urge all citizens to be part of the efforts to curb cultism in the State by reporting any suspicious cult activity, including gatherings and initiations in or around their neighbourhoods to the security agencies for immediate action.”

Many say politicians created cultism and violence but studies rather point to drugs as harbinger. The politicians only tapped into it as a harvest of thugs. Then, oil bunkering has come to turn it into a steady economic platform.

A study said: “What is more important getting to the root cause of the problem – the socio-economic issues, the legitimacy issues that make communities turn to gangs in the first place, the justice issues and the myopia of political operatives who prefer to take the shortcut of gang violence to win elections.”

Nobody and nowhere is safe. People come out late for businesses and run back home very early. Cult group now provide ready army to other violent activities such as assassination, kidnapping, robbery, mobbing, protests, bunkering, etc. If mult-sectoral approaches are not immediately adopted, the Niger Delta beginning with Port Harcourt would surely boil over, and governments may flee. For a start, businesses say they run thrice the cost of doing business in other areas.