Fides Media Living the Faith
By Ikeugonna Eleke
Police operatives in Anambra State have reportedly arrested two suspected cultists who participated in the killing of a rival cultist, beheading and playing soccer with his head last year.
A video had trended last year in September, showing some young men, suspected to be cultists, who dragged out another young man, suspected to be a member of a rival cult group who they gunned down in cold blood and beheaded.
Another part of the video showed the young men playing soccer with the head of the dreadlocks-carrying rival cultist after he had been beheaded, while making jest of it.
Sources said the incident had happened in Igbariam, Anambra East Local Government Area, same community that hosts the state owned university, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (COOU), while the head was taken to the state capital, Awka, where the youths used it to play.
In a video currently trending, two young cultists; Chisom Okafor and Ikechukwu Chinweze, aged 23 and 19, who were being questioned by men suspected to be police officers, they accepted to being members of Ayes Cult, and that they had participated in several killings.
23 years old Chisom Okafor was seen in the video confessing: ‘I’m also known as Stamina. I’m from Igboukwu, but my mum is from Awka. I am 23 years old. I belong to Ayes Cult group and have killed only three people before.
He named two persons out of the three he had killed. They include Edu Obara and Savage. Both were suspected cultists who were murdered in 2021 and beheaded in like manner. While Edu Obara was killed in Igbariam, Savage was killed and beheaded in Oko, Orumba North Local Government Area and his trunk taken to Awka.
He continued in his confession: ‘I was among the cultists who went to Obj’s place (nickname) and killed some security men. We were seven in number that went for the operation. I dropped out of school, but I’m a tiler, and I do tiling very well.’
Okafor in the video also mentioned the names of the seven members of their cult who participated in the operation against security men.
Another cultist, who was also interviewed in the video, said: ‘I’m Ikechukwu Chinweze. I’m 19 years, from Umuzocha in Awka. I’m a school leaver. I was learning phone repairs before I met Chisom here in Ifite.’
Meanwhile, some residents of Anambra State have stated that the man named Savage, who was killed last year, was the same person whose head was used to play soccer, suggesting that the now arrested cultists were responsible for the act.
Iyke Orji, an Anambra indigene, said: ‘Some group of boys have been caught and are at the state CID Awka now.
‘They confessed that they’re the boys that were playing ball with human skull some time ago that went viral on social media,
‘They confessed that they were the boys that attacked and killed security man/men at Miracle Junction, Awka. They confessed that they killed someone (Savage) at Oko, took the body from Oko to Awka and decapitated the body at Amaenyi, Awka. One of them is 19. None is above 25.’
A source said the venue of the interview was at the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID), but when Fides reached out to the State Police Command to verify the video, the spokesperson of the Command, DSP Tochukwu Ikenga, pleaded for time to do so.
As at the time of filing this report, the PPRO was yet to get back to Fides.