SEVERAL SECURITY OPERATIVES MURDERED BY CULTISTS IN NASSARAWA STATE (GRAPHIC PHOTO)

Several security operatives including police officers, SSS and Civil Defense personnel in Nassarawa State were murdered on Tuesday May 7th when they were sent by the Nassarawa State Commissioner of Police to arrest the cult leader of a notorious militia group called 'Ombatse' (a cult group of the Eggon people of Nasarawa State) at Assakyo Village in Lafia, Nassarawa state.

The state government wanted to arrest the chief priest because the group had been causing security concerns in the state. Unfortunately for the police officers sent to pick the man up, as they approached the Ombatse Shrine in a forest, members of the militia group who had laid ambush for them attacked and killed plenty of them. Many of the police officers were burnt beyond recognition and 8 out of the 11 police patrol vans used to convey the mobile policemen for the operation were burnt by the militia group.

The police command later said that only 17 out of the 90 police officers, minus SSS and NSCDC personnel, who went on the mission returned and all with various degrees of wounds. President Jonathan had to call off his planned visit to Namibia on Thursday because of this sad incident.

 

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The Nassarawa Commissioner of Police explains why they wanted to arrest the Ombatse cult leader:

"The militia group called Ombatse was going about in mosques and churches forcing all people of Eggon extraction in and out of Lafia to drink a particular concoction prepared from herbs and anyone who failed to comply was beaten up and harassed. It was agreed at the state security meeting that the Ombatse Shrine priest be arrested to stop such activities.”

Only a few Ombatse worshipers were killed in an operation that lasted almost 24 hours, while at least 60 security operatives were killed. Over 100 bodies, some of them burnt beyond recognition, were displayed at the Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital in Lafia for identifications by friends and relatives of the slain police men.

 

The Nasarawa State police command, however, yesterday arrested two policemen who allegedly tipped off the cultists, leading to the deaths of their colleagues. The two police corporals, Corporal Enugu (pictured below) and Corporal Haruna Joseph, are of Eggon origin.

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