Armed gunmen suspected to be members of a cult group have reportedly shot dead four persons in Rundele, Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State.
The gunmen suspected to be on a revenge mission, who reportedly came on Tuesday night in a tricycle popularly called Keke NAPEP and an 18-passenger bus were said to have come stormed the community and forcibly taken away some men to an unknown location.
Few hours to the incident, two of the victims identified as members of a local vigilante group were found dead and their heads and private parts were said to have been chopped off.
A source in the community, who pleaded anonymity, said: “The assailants are the cultists, who are some indigenes of our community. They have been were chased out for being members of cult groups terrorizing the community.
“When they (the attackers) came they were fully armed. They had earlier declared that they were going to return to the community to reclaim their territory.”
Meanwhile, the Rivers State Police Command’s spokesperson, Grace Iringe-Koko, who confirmed the incident to newsmen, however, linked the killings to a clash between two suspected rival cult groups in the area.
The spokesperson disclosed that four people died in the attack, adding that the state Commissioner of Police, Nwonyi Polycarp, has ordered tactical units to be deployed to the area so as to arrest the perpetrators.
