A renewed cult war in parts of Benin City, Edo State, have reportedly claimed the lives of not less than eight people, espe- cially in Upper Sokponba Road, a sub-urban area in the Edo State capital.
A source said that the death toll is not less than eight in the last three days when the crisis started. The latest clash is said to be between the Eiye and Vikings con- fraternities.
Though the cause of the clash is not yet known, it was learnt that the issues escalated when some of the people believed to be leaders of the groups tried to resolve the crisis in a meeting called at Tipper garage in Idogbo area of Upper Sokponba Road and that “the attempt to settle matter did not work, thereafter, some Eiye men attacked the Vikings members and inflicted injuries’ on them with knives but no life was lost.
“The Vikings went back in their numbers and killed one of the top hierarchy member of Eiye, that was how it escalated and after that they killed another person called oil man also an Eiye member and from there they went two houses away and killed another person, so that is what led to Eiye decided to start their retaliation.
There was a Vikings member that was stabbed mercilessly and they thought he was dead, but he is in the hospital. The challenge in this is that one of the groups does not accept apology and the other does not apologise,” the source said.
Meanwhile, a group, Benin United Forum (BUF), has called on the Oba of Benin, Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Ewuare II to invoke curses on those involved in cult related killings like he did when human trafficking assumed an embarrassing dimension in the kingdom.
