16 suspects paraded over cultism in Benue
The police in Benue State have arrested 16 people in connection with cult activities which led to the death of one Muhammadu Hudu at the North bank area of Makurdi.
Spokesman of the police in the state, ASP Moses Joel Yamu, who paraded the suspects at the command headquarters yesterday, said the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) raided the hideouts of the suspects and arrested them.
Yamu said the stabbing to death of Hudu at Udei Street in North bank last Saturday and a reprisal which left one Benjamin Oryima severely injured by rival cultists propelled the raid on Nortth bank and Terwase Agbadu suburbs by police operatives.
He gave the names of those arrested as Abubakar Yahaya, Isah Suleiman, Mohammed Dawaki, Salisu Abdullahi, Kenneth Udeh, Ibrahim Adamu, Terfa John, Terso Atsor, Desmond Nor, Ivanger Vihinga, Terso Moses, Fred Mngutor, Iorbunde Daniel, Solomon Ashave, Ogbu Hycinth and Peter Ameh.
The police spokesman said that a locally-made pistol and two single barrel guns were recovered from the suspects, adding that they would soon be charged to court.
In an interview with our correspondent, one of the suspects, Abubakar Yahaya, who claimed to be a 300-level student of the Yobe State University, denied any knowledge of the crime.
Similarly, Fred Mgutor, a driver with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, said he had just returned from the day’s work at about 4:20pm on Monday when the police operatives invaded his family home at Terwase Agabdu and whisked him away alongside his younger brother in the presence of their mother.
Mguntor said he was an honest civil servant who knew nothing about the incident he was arrested for.