Cult attack: Police on red alert in Bayelsa varsity town

Security agencies have been put on red alert in the university town of Amassoma in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, following the upsurge in violent clashes between rival cult groups.

Already, a police squadron backed by armoured personnel carrier has been deployed in the area to complement the security men on ground in the community, the only town in the Southern Ijaw council that could be accessed by road and water.

Amassoma was the theatre of a dawn violent clash, Wednesday, between rival cult gangs in which two students of the Niger Delta University were killed. Two other students, who reportedly fled into the Nun River were feared drowned.

While one of the victims, identified as Theophilus, a final year civil engineering student was axed to death after being dragged out of his room off campus, the corpse of another student believed to have been asphyxiated before being thrown into the river had been retrieved from the river.

The police team, Vanguard learnt, was dispatched to the area by the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Chris Olakpe on the orders of the governor, said to be disturbed by the ugly development in the university town.

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Final year student killed in Bayelsa varsity

Fresh panic, yesterday, gripped Niger Delta University, Amassoma, Bayelsa State, following the killing of a final year engineering student of the institution by persons suspected to be cultists. The state government, has meanwhile, tasked security agencies to fish out the perpetrators.

The student, aged 24, whose name could not be immediately ascertained, was reportedly found in the morning lying in the pool of his blood outside the gate of the campus with deep cuts inflicted on his face. He was said to have been attacked with an axe Tuesday night.

The corpse of the deceased student was abandoned outside the campus till noon, yesterday, before it was evacuated by the police and deposited at an undisclosed morgue.

Sources from the university community told Vanguard that the development had led to the reinforcement of security around the institution, as the students and workers now live in fear.

A student who pleaded anonymity, said: “This has been happening around this town. Sometimes students are stabbed and killed. We live in fear and we want security operatives to help us. Only recently, a student was chased into the river by some cultists. He later drowned and his body has not been found.”

The university town had come under siege lately from violent gangs suspected to be ritual killers and cultists.

It will be recalled that on February 6, a 31-year- old driver of the institution’s Registrar was abducted and killed by suspected ritualists.

His decomposing body was later found under a bridge wrapped in rug with his mouth, ears and arms chopped off.

Contacted, the state Public Relations Officer, Mr. Eguavoen Emopkai, confirmed that a final year student was killed by unknown persons.

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