Police Arrest 81 For Cultism, Others Crimes In Edo

On Tuesday, the Edo State Police Command detained 81 people it claimed were connected to many crimes throughout the state.

Naija News reports that State Commissioner of Police, Muhammad Dankwara, who paraded the suspects, stated they were taken into custody due to the ongoing crackdown on criminal activity that started on December 11.

He claimed that, among other offences, the suspects were arrested for crimes bordering on cultism, car snatching, illegal gun ownership, and kidnapping.

According to him, the majority of the suspects were detained on charges of cultism. He also said they had information indicating that influential people were leading the cult organization.

Dankwara said, “This is to warn either those in government or outside that is supporting cult group tactically or financially to desist from it because anybody no matter how highly placed would be prosecuted.

“We have arrested members of various cult groups but the prominent ones that usually have problems in the state are black axe, Eiye, and Maphite confraternities.

“We have intelligence that highly places people in the state are supporting and behind this cult group and once we can verify this, we would go after them because they can’t make the state ungovernable.

“Anywhere we know that there are cultists whether individual houses or public places, we would go there and arrest them.”

He stated that there is no advantage to belonging to a cult and urged cults to stop their illegal activities as the crackdown would not end.