By Kamsi Anayo, Awka
Gunmen identified as cultists have shot four people to death at Afor Nawfia Market, along the Onitsha–Awka, Anambra State.
The Anambra State Police Command confirmed the grisly incident in a statement on Monday.
The cultists shot the four men in the head? Face and other parts as the bodies lay in the pull of their blood.
The police provided an update on the cult-related attack in the evening of Dec. 7 at Afor Nawfia Market, along the Onitsha–Awka Old Road.
Operatives of the Command attached to the Special Anti-Cult Squad, Enugwu-Ukwu, had, four days earlier, acting on credible intelligence about a planned rival cult confrontation, arrested two dangerous suspects and recovered a firearm from them.
The Spokesman of the State Police Command, SP Tochukwu Ikenga, said the arrested suspects have been assisting the Police with valuable information aimed at preventing further cult-related violence within Awka and its environs.
Despite these efforts by the Command operatives, some members of the same gang, in the evening of Dec. 7, operating in a black Lexus Jeep with registration number yet unknown, stormed Afor Nawfia Market and opened fire indiscriminately, the report said.
Ikenga disclosed that the violent attack resulted in the death of four persons, after which the assailants fled the scene.
He added that while the hoodlums escaped before police arrival, preliminary information obtained at the scene has provided useful leads, and the Command was already acting on them to ensure the perpetrators are tracked down and arrested.
He said the Anambra State Police Command remains resolute in its determination to rid the State of cultism, violent crime, and all forms of criminality.
