Residents flee as cultists kill eight in Rivers community

A deadly attack by a cult group has left eight persons dead in Mgbuodohia community, Rumuolumeni Clan in Obio/Akpor Local Council of Rivers State and forced residents to flee their homes for fear of being killed.

The Guardian learnt that a gang group, who invaded the community, came in from unknown area, moved from house to house in search of rival gang group members killing their targets and the relatives where the target persons are not found.

It was also gathered that the killings were a fall-out of a lingered supremacy battle between the Icelanders and the Degbam group who had allegedly been killing each other one by one.

The rival group reportedly invaded the community yesterday in search of their rival gang members after sending an alert letter of their visit to the community.

A source in the community said: “When the rival group sent the letter of their visit, the community leaders informed the Divisional Police Officer in charge of the area and he promised to handle the situation but unfortunately, he did nothing till the attack happened this morning.

Also, a resident in the area, Mr. Marcel Ugo, told The Guardian that before the incident, the residents usually run away from their homes every night sequel to the lingered gangs’ battle.

A visit to the area showed massive number of persons, including men, women, youths and children, moving out of the community to Port Harcourt township.

Meanwhile, efforts to reach the state Police Public Relations Officer, Nnamdi Omoni, was futile as his phones rang severally without response.

However, Chairman of Rumuolumeni Community Development Committee (CDC), Mr. Sunny Odum, confirmed that eight persons died during the attack, expressing sadness over the ugly development and disappointment by the police.

He confirmed that eight persons died during the attack in the community.

He, however, assured residents not to panic over the incident but to go about their normal businesses, as security operatives would help to arrest the perpetrators and bring them to book.