From: Ben Dunno, Warri
The search for the killers of the son of a female police officer attached to the Warri Area Command has led to a fierce gun battle between the police and a suspected cult group around the popular Avenue area in the heart of Warri South Local Government Area of Delta state.
Daily Sun investigations revealed that a 23-year-old Ordinary National Diploma (OND) graduate of one of the state-owned polytechnics was accosted by some unknown assailants in a commercial tricycle, popularly known as ,”Keke Napep” at about 7pm last Sunday while walking alone along Okere Road.
It was learnt that the assailants who initially demanded for his phones, resorted to stabbing him all over with knives and daggers in their possession after being axed on the head due to the resistance to release his valuable items to them.
The victim who was later identified as the son of an intelligence officer attached to the ‘B Division’, Police Station, Okumagba Avenue, was reported to have died on the spot as a result of the stabbing that pierces through a sensitive organ of his body.
It was learnt that incident which devastated the police unit prompted the reinforcement of personnel from various formation within the Warri Area Command, to some notable hideouts of cultists and hoodlums within the metropolis.
An Eyewitness account revealed that the attempt by the police team to invade one of the notorious hideout around Okumagba Avenue area at about 3;30am on Monday, was resisted by the members of the cult group who engaged the police in a fierce gin battle.
According to the sources, the windscreen of the police patrol team vehicle was shattered by bullet from the cultist while the cult members including those who sustained bullet injuries fled through the near by bush.
The police have however commenced search in some near by hospitals to see if there were victims with fresh bullet injuries.
The Delta State Police Command Public Relations Officer (PPRO) DSP Andrew Aniamaka, who confirmed the bloody confrontation between the police and the cultists in a telephone conversation with Our Correspondent in Warri yesterday, said the are on the trail of some members of the cult group.
According to him, “Yes, there was an exchange of gun shots between our men and a cult group in the early hours of Monday in which the windscreen of the patrol team vehicle was shattered by the cultists but some of them sustained some bullet injuries before running away through a nearby bush”.
” We have intensified the man hunt for them and am very optimistic that soon some of these cult members who are on the run will soon be brought to book “, Aniamaka said.