Five students of the Nasarawa State Polytechnic, Lafia, suspected to be involved in cult activities, have been arrested by the Nasarawa State Police Command for various reasons, including possession of dangerous weapons.
Confirming this past weekend in Lafia, the state capital, the Deputy Police Public Relations Officer (DPPRO), Nasarawa State Command, Mr. Ocholi Cornelius, said the suspects were arrested at Ombi 1 area of Nasarawa State with some offensive items like knives, cutlasses, locally made pistol, charms, axe and iron which they use in terrorising students on campus.
The culprits include Ifeanyi Chukwu (a.k.a. Papitwater), Billy Henry, a.k.a Billy), Oraver Matins (a.ka. Parlex) Herison Felix (a.k.a. Zubi) and another person (name withheld), all of Nasarawa State Polytechnic.
Their journey to the police net started last Thursday when Billy, who had graduated from the institution and only came to collect his result, was asked to convey his cult friends to their den for their fraternity meeting. On arrival at the hideout, he was accused of driving recklessly and nearly costing them their lives and in the ensuing argument he was given the beating of his life.
His Blackberry phone and N11,000 were also seized from him, but the former was returned after he paid a ransom of N3,000.
On his part, Ifeanyi, is said to be widely identified with cult-related activities in various institutions across the federation, and was allegedly expelled from both the University of Calabar and University of Jos for involvements in cult activities.
According to Cornelius, one out of the five cultists who made confessions to the police said that he was a pastor with one of the churches in Lafia (name withheld) but had dropped the evangelical work and gone back to school for further studies where he got entangled with bad boys.