By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

Come-And-Live-And-Be-At-Rest is the acronym for Calabar, the Cross River State capital and the nation’s first administrative headquarters during the colonial era. Calabar is noted for serene environment and has been adjudged as the country’s tourism destination. The city is peaceful, clean and green with highly rich culture and cuisine though very expensive.

But penultimate week, area boys and suspected cultists placed  ‘curfew’ within the state Calabar metropolis for three days and held residents of the city especially, Calabar South hostage with. It was gathered that two cult groups were out for supremacy tussle but instead of going against the rival members, they went to the streets especially, Watt Market, Goldie, Nelson Mandela, Bedwell, Harcourt and other adjoining streets within the Calabar South, looting and destroying peoples property.

The suspected cultists who were said to be cadet members of the two cult groups and mostly secondary school drop-outs and area boys that have no trace of their paternity were also said to have been groomed by politicians from the inception of the fourth republic to deal with political opponents but were not disarmed after the elections.

Before the 1999 elections in the state, Calabar was peaceful but the politicians in their desperate moves to maneuvre and grab power had assembled street urchins and some suspected cultists in tertiary institutions and equipped them with dangerous weapons but could not retrieve the weapons from them and when the politicians had gotten what they wanted and were not “servicing the boys,” they decided to enter the streets with the weapons to terrorize the residents for “daily bread”.

For three days, the cultists went on rampage  destroying properties and shooting sporadically. Shop owners around Watt Market and Nelson Mandela Street were forced to close their shops while those who tried to open closed about 5pm daily, though the cultists were also operating in the day time.

However, the state government rose to the occasion after about three days and deployed the state security outfit from the State Emergency Response Centre, Quick Intervention Squad and the military joint security outfit, Operation Messa.

Places that were suspected to be the hide-outs of the cultists were raided and random arrests made. Though it was gathered that before the arrests, most of those who were behind what some persons had described as act of criminality especially the “big boys’ within their ranks had fled the state on self-imposed exile pending when the rival group could sheathe their swords, guns and machetes.

Weapons of operation

Parading 93 suspects arrested by the officers and men of the 13 Brigade, Nigerian Army, Akim Barracks, Calabar, the Public Relations Officer of the Brigade, Captain Joseph James said that some of the suspects were arrested at the scene of the event while some others were arrested in hide outs and brothels where they also sell hard drugs including Indian hemp and cocaine.

Captain James said, “Following the incident that took place on Tuesday 19th of June 2012 by a serious cult clash in Calabar South which led to the killings of some people, and another mayhem the following day where there was another clash, based on the intelligent report which we got, our men and officers of the Nigerian Army alongside the Quick Intervention Squad, QIs which is the joint security force in Calabar saddled with the responsibility of upholding the security of the state, went to work.

“When they got to the scene where this clash happened, several arrests were made and as you can see in the background, some of these people are suspected cultists and their arrests were made and we brought them here last night. It is very surprising to see some young persons after this incident that has taken place still moving about at that ungodly hour and I still say that the operation which was carried out by the Operation Messa and Qick Intervention Squad also raided some hide outs where they sell Indian hemp and where some group of people used to gather very late at night.

“The whole essence is to investigate and to find out and get the perpetrators of that clash. The Nigerian army will never relent. 13 Brigade officers and soldiers will never give up, we will never relent. QIS and Operation Messa will continue to make arrests, we will continue to haunt those perpetrators and make sure we smoke them out wherever they are and hand them over to the law so that the law will take appropriate action on them.

“The total number of arrests is 93, male and female inclusive. Out of 93, we have 74 males and 19 females. Most of them were caught in that act. They are suspects until when investigations confirmed them as cultists. We searched them thoroughly but none of them was found with any ammunition or weapon. Very many of them were arrested at the scene where that cult clashes took place in Calabar south,” he said

Although among the 93 arrested were those who had gone to viewing centres to watch the Euro 2012 match between Portugal and Czech Republic, on June 25. About 12  midnight Monday, the officers from 13 Brigade arrested another 14 persons at the Hawkins cemetery in Calabar South Local Government Area.

Gov Imoke of Cross River

The Brigade PRO said that the arrests were as due a tip off and that 12 of the suspected cultists were holding a meeting at the cemetery, while two persons who had fled the scene of the said meeting were arrested on the road. He said that the army had been looking for the cultists that harassed, intimidated and inflicted injury on the innocent citizens for two days adding that the 14 persons arrested were handed over to the State Criminal Investigation Department of the State Police Command.

James assured that the army was ready to smoke out those criminal elements that were disturbing the peace of the state and that the intelligence unit of the army was still working hard to fish out all the people that were involved in the mayhem.

On Saturday June 30, members of the Quick Intervention Squad arrested another 14 persons in different locations in the state metropolis and recovered over 226 wraps of Indian hemp,  258 wraps of substance suspected to be cocaine, kitchen knives and one scissors.

Parading the suspects at the QIS headquarters Calabar, the second in command of the squad ASP Innocent Ayabotu said that in view of the menace of cultists in the state, the squad received intelligence report that some suspected cultists were hiding at a shrine near Etim Edem park and immediately the suspects were arrested when the squad raided the place.

Ayabotu also disclosed that areas where the cult activities had been fierce in the state capital such as Jebbs street, Anantigha area, Atamunu, Ibesikpo and Afokang were raided and some persons arrested.

In an interview with  Saturday Vanguard, the State Security Adviser, Mr. Rekpene Bassey said that the state governor Senator Liyel Imoke had been vehement in the war against cultism, saying that for the governor, the war was total and if nothing drastic is done, would destroy the people.

Bassey said that the governor had been on social preaching, appealing the youths to give up cultism and  as the governor had noted, none of the cult members put his membership into the cult in his curriculum vitae . He said that cultism is destructive and share criminality, stressing that it is an evil wind that blows no one any good.