Reining in Cultists
Two rival groups in Emohua LGA of River State in a fierce battle for supremacy send six persons to their early graves

Engr. Emeka Woke

By Lawson Heyford, Port Harcourt
S uddenly, Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State, known for its peaceful co-existence and good niegbourliness and located on the ever busy East-West Road has assumed the toga of a flash point of cultism and cult-related activities. Within the past three months, the sleepy Emohua Rumudemesisi community, comprising eight clans including Rumuche and Rumuelewon, had lost no fewer than 15 promising young men including a pregnant woman, in cold blood to the menace of cultism. Several others were seriously injured and properties worth several millions of naira lost.
On May 13, this year, Rumuche community, one of the outstanding clans in Emohua and country home of a prominent politician in the state, was sacked in a clash between two cult groups: Degbam and Dewell. More than seven persons were killed in the exchange of firearms, using guns, machetes and dynamites. Last year, a retired Deputy Commissioner of Police, Lawrence Uchendu, was killed following a disagreement in Rumuedawusi clan.
Two months after, precisely on Saturday, July 22, 2006, members of the Degbam and Dewell cult groups again picked up arms against one another, turning the Rumedewasi clan into another war theatre. In the ensuing crossfire, six members of two of the
three families that make up the clan, were dastardly murdered in cold blood. Four of the deceased were identified, as members of Dewell cult group while the other two were allegedly members of the rival Degbam group, including its point man and youth leader. As usual, many others were injured, with residents of the clan and surrounding clans fleeing their homes to nieghbouring communities and Port Harcourt, the state capital. One Wekese Ogbuka from Rumuedemesisi was earlier shot dead on July 10, 2006 at about 7p.m.
Among the other victims were Expensive Okrika, Junior Okrika, Nna Teri Enyinda– the alleged pointsman of Dewell and an Igbo mechanic, Saddam Kelechi Iberi. Others were the youth leader of Rumuelewon, Chituru Iberi, the younger brother of the alleged Degbam pointsman and Chukwuka Igwe alias Plato. Their corpses have since been deposited at a private hospital, the Sympathy Mortuary, along the NTA - Choba road, Port Harcourt at the expense of Emuhua Local Government Council.
Sunday Okrika, a 50-years-old man who lost two of his sons, Expensive and Junior in the Degbam-Dewell cult supremacy battle, became unconscious upon learning about the incident and was rushed to Mediplan Clinic in Port Harcourt for urgent medical attention. On his sick bed, three days after admission, the recuperating Okrika, a staff of an oil service company, Wilbros Nigeria Limited, Choba, Port Harcourt, lamented that the incident has put to an end his long dream of bequeathing a memorable legacy to his children.
The latest trouble of July 22, 2006 began as a reprisal attack, following the hacking to death of Wekese Ogbuka, said to be the pointsman of Degbam cult gang. Dike Okrika, the oldest son of Sunday Dike and pointsman of Dewell was accused of plotting and killing Wekese Ogbuka, so angered by Ogbuka’s death, Degbam members reportedly attacked Dike’s residence at Rumuelewon at about 1am on the fateful day. As if he had a premonition, of the ugly turn of events, Dike did not sleep at home, but his younger ones– Expensive and Junior paid the ultimate price with their lives.
Realising that a bigger crisis was imminent, Rumuelewon clan summoned a meeting at the town hall to discuss the matter. Dike, who got wind of the meeting allegedly mobilised his Dewell boys who unleashed terror at the venue, killing Saddam Kelachi Iberi. Another Degbam member, Chukwueke Igwe, was also shot dead sending attendants at the meeting scampering for safety and in the process several others were severely injured.
Prior to the open confrontation between the two rival cult groups, the crisis in Emohua area had been blamed on the differences between the political or appointed
representatives from the area. All of them, including Emeka Woke, chairman of Emuoha Local Government Council, Chidi Lloyd, a member of the State House of Assembly, Chief Emeh Glory Emeh, the State Commissioner for Transport, and Chief Andrew Uchendu, a member of the House of Representatives, agreed that the latest incident was not politically motivated, but was rather a case of two cult groups battling for supremacy.
Woke and Lloyd said separately that none of them as political leaders is a cultist and could, therefore not have been involved in the recent clashes between the cult groups. During the last primaries for the selection of the Chairman of their Emohua Local
Government Council, the political leaders had gone different ways over the choice of the incumbent, Woke. Since then, there had been a seeming no-love lost between the leaders.
The Council Chairman and the state lawmaker expressed disgust at the spate of cult killings in the area, culminating in the invocation of the community’s diety on any Emohua indigene that would kill his or her own brother or sister, apparently to scare the cult members and other youths.
The Council Chairman told The Source that everything possible would be done to stem the increasing wave of cultism in the area and talked about the new rapport between the council and security operatives, however, The Source learnt that the killings lasted between one a.m and 7a.m on the fateful day, while men of the state police command arrived the scene at about 5pm same day, even though they were contacted at about 4am.
The mayhem in Emohua LGA has instructively compelled Governor Peter Odili to summon the 24 Council Chairmen in the state to the new Government House, Port Harcourt, where he told them to allow crises in their domain and risk immediate dissolution. According to Odili, who was said to have been visibly angry: ”If you cannot maintain peace or disengage yourselves from crisis in your local government, then you are not fit to lead the people. And I will not hesitate to dissolve such a council where its leadership or party or elected officials are involved in crisis. You should be agents of peace and not crisis.”
As if blaming the crisis in some local government areas in the state on the non- provision of democratic dividends to the people, Odili accused some council chairmen of not doing enough with the huge resources at their disposal.
Woke, Emouhua Council boss was only recently adjudged the best among his other colleagues.
Governor Odili’s tour of LGAs in the state, which started early last year was abruptly brought to an end without any reason, but the Governor, acclaimed to be the best in the country, has promised to resume such visits to the LGAs.
The Emohua episode, notably, is only but one of the many crisis for which elected or appointed representatives in the state have been accused of either sponsoring or instigated in their communities and local government areas ostensibly to gain political supremacy. Political observers are, therefore, of the firm believe that the end of the crises would come when the state government matches its words with actions by using some individuals as scapegoats.