Eleven young men said to be members of a cult group have been arrested while they were holding initiation ceremony inside the campus of the University of Calabar (UNICAL).
The men were arrested by a joint team of policemen and the internal security operatives of the institution inside a bush near the Faculty of Engineering.
The names of those arrested were given as Ogar Favour, David Akpa, Gift Emmanuel, Aaron Favour, David Abubu, Victor Emmanuel Eyibo, Oghenemaro Hendrix, James Ede Joseph, Charles Ekeng, Edu Nkanu and Ogabor John Odey.
It was gathered that on Thursday, October 22 around 10:30 a.m., operatives of the state police command’s Violent Crime Response Unit (VCRU), Satellite Town, Calabar, responded to a distress call from the university on a cult initiation activities in the bush near the faculty.
Acting on the information, the command joined the university’s internal security personnel to cordon off the area and the operation resulted in the arrest of the young men.
“The suspects are being investigated to establish their individual roles and the circumstances surrounding the reported activity,” the command said in a statement on Friday, October 23.
At the point of their arrest, items said to have been recovered from them included a Lexus 350 Sports Utility Vehicle reportedly abandoned by a fleeing individual and three motorcycles.
“The items have been secured for investigative purposes. No connection between the recovered vehicles and the suspected cult-related activity has been established at this stage,” the statement added.
