The Standard Gazette has learned about the third man who was killed by rampaging cultists on Wednesday night.
Odia Stephen, 47, hailed from Ekpoma, Esan West local government of Edo State, was killed on 19 April along Jemila road in Ikpoba Hill in Benin City.
The Standard Gazette gathered that Odia was shot dead at a bar at Jemila Road by some unknown cultists armed with guns and cutlasses, who were on a retaliatory rampage.
The organized slaughter of the opposing gang led the gunmen into three separate bars on Wednesday night, leaving dead bodies in their wake.
The Standard Gazette reported that seven suspected members of a deadly secret cult were arrested on the afternoon of Wednesday, 19 April 2023, at various criminal hideouts in Benin City, in the government’s desperate effort to nip the violence in the bud.
Arms and ammunition, including battleaxes, were recovered from them.
However, the same evening, a group of angry gun-wielding attacked multiple locations in Benin and one of their victims was now identified as Odia Stephen.
The hoodlums first shot into the air to scare the customers at the drinking spot before they attacked their target.
The TSG reliably gathered that the gunmen shot at their targets at close range, killing him on the spot, while others used a battle axe to dismember him before flying the scene to the second victim.
The cultists went to Osayande Street behind McDonald Group of Schools near Guinness, Ikpoba Hill and attacked their second victim without the presence of the Nigerian police.
The suspected cultists headed to Osayande Street behind the McDonald Group of Schools near Guinness, Ikpoba Hill in Benin and attacked the second victim, whose identity is unknown at the time of this report.
It would be recalled that there have been reported killings for the past two weeks following an inter-secret cult fight which has left over six persons dead in Benin City.
They have been profiled and will be charged to court after the holiday in Nigeria, says Edo State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Chidi Nwabuzor.
The body of Odia has been deposited in Our Clinic Mortuary in Benin City for autopsy and further investigation.
©Standard Gazette, 2021. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s publisher is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Standard Gazette with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.