Move by a cult group to initiate new members into its fold was foiled on Monday, November 20, 2023 by operatives of Delta State Police Command who disrupted the illegal activity.
Confirming this in a statement, the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Bright Edafe, disclosed that the command’s Raiders Squad got credible information about the intended cult initiation and stormed an uncompleted building at Mission Road in Sapele where the initiation was being held.
“Upon sighting the police, the suspects took to their heels and fled in different directions abandoning a bag.
“The bag was searched, and one English pump action gun was recovered. The recovered exhibit is in custody, and investigation has commenced,” the PPRO said.
He added that efforts were being made to identify and arrest the fleeing suspects.
In another development, a suspected cultist, Francis Sunday, was arrested for threatening lives with a gun.
Before the suspect’s arrest, the police spokesman said that a man (name withheld) reported at a police station on November 23 at about 2pm that he was in an argument with his siblings at his residence in Umunede Community when the suspect, also a resident of same Umunede Community and present at the time of altercation, was asked to leave the premises.
The complainant told the police that the order infuriated the suspect to the point that he pulled out a locally-made cut-to-size pistol and threatened to kill anyone who tried to walk him out of the residence.
The report, Edafe said, took the operatives of the Divisional Anti-Crime Patrol Team to the complainant’s residence where the suspect was arrested on November 24 at about 12:30pm.
When Sunday’s residence at Mbiri Community Umunede was searched, a locally-made cut-to-size pistol was recovered, the PPRO stated, adding that the suspect and the exhibit had been taken into custody, while investigation had commenced.
In his reaction, the Commissioner of Police, Wale Abass, assured that his command would maintain its moves to ensure that those threatening the safety of all peace-loving Deltans are brought to book.
CP Abass admonished residents to cooperate with the police by giving useful, timely, and credible information to curb criminal activities.
