3 Dead As Cultists Clash In Calabar

Clashes between Black Axe and Klans cultists in Calabar, Cross Rivers State, Tuesday night and the early hours of yesterday, has claimed three lives.

An eyewitness said the killing of one of the victims at about 11p.m. on Tuesday on Ambo Street set the stage for the clashes, adding “we had just finished a church programme at about 11p.m. and were going home when some young men accosted a youth and began hitting him with a plank.

“After hitting him several times, they used machete to cut the victim who was screaming for help. The victim was said to have come to visit someone in the neighbourhood. Everybody had to run from the scene as it appeared it was cultists that were attacking each other.

“After about an hour, the Police from Mbukpa Police Station arrived the scene, but did not meet the culprits who escaped.”

A reprisal attack, yesterday, on a street near Ambo Street also resulted in the death of another victim. Earlier yesterday, another victim was said to have been killed around Chamley Street by Ekondo also in Calabar South.

Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Irene Ugbo, confirmed the incidents, saying “three persons were killed when two cult groups, Black Axe and Klan, clashed. Four suspects have been arrested in connection with the incidents and they are being interrogated.

“Our men have been deployed everywhere. There is no cause for alarm as the situation has been brought under control.”