About 10 persons have been reportedly killed in the last three days in Akure, the Ondo State capital, with several others injured, as rival cult group’s battle over supremacy in the area.
Among those arrested were four ex-convicts who used an abandoned two-storey building near the state House of Assembly as their hideout are Omololu James, 19; Ojo Odunayo, 16, and Wale Ayemowa, 18, who were discharged from Lagos prisons after serving their sentences and one Bidemi Victor 18, who served his jail sentence in Olokuta in Akure.
Sources in the area revealed that the killing of a member of one group sparked off a reprisal attack, which led to the cult groups engaging each other in bloody gun battles at Oke-Aro, Old Garage, NEPA Junction and Odi-Olowo areas.
According to sources, four members of one of the cult groups, riding on Okada, stormed NEPA Junction at about 9p.m. Monday, and shot their target at close range. The killing was said to have created tension in the state capital, as streets were deserted following fear of another reprisal attack by the other group.
The Ondo State Police public relation officer Femi Joseph, said only three persons were killed, while one survived gunshots during the cult war.
Joseph while speaking to Journalists said the fight was as a result of a reprisal attack by one of the groups, whose member was earlier killed by a rival group.
According to Joseph, over 20 suspects have been arrested across the Akure metropolis in connection with the civil unrest and cultism in the area
