Few days after linking the state government to amnesty plans for suspected cultists, who have been unleashing violence in Ukanafun Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, the state Police Command has refuted the claim.
There had been unabated cases of armed robbery, kidnapping and killing of prominent people in the area including the gruesome murder of the Local Government Secretary, Obong Ime Willie Atakpa.
Investigation by the Police led to the arrest of eight suspected cultists, who, according to the Commissioner of Police (CP), Mr. Don Awunah, have since confessed to the crime and have been ordered to be arraigned at the Ukanafun Chief Magistrate Court.
Among the suspects, the police disclosed, is the former Council Chairman of Ukanafun, Hon. Abasiono Udomfu, alleged to be the major sponsor of the assassination of his erstwhile secretary.
Addressing journalists in Uyo, the CP displayed various guns, bullets, charms and other items recovered from the suspects, collaborated with the PPRO’s statement, but denied alleged government involvement in the amnesty programmes for cultists.
“The governor never at any time contemplated amnesty for cultists, the PPRO was quoted out of context”, the CP explained.
In the same vein, the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the governor, Mr Ekerete Udoh, also said, “The governor has zero tolerance for cultism.”
It will be recalled that Governor Udom Emmanuel had since dissolved the Council and the chairman had been arrested and charged to court along with other suspects.
The PPRO, DSP Chukwu Ikechukwu, issued a statement that revealed the reasons and circumstances that led to the gruesome murder of the secretary.
According to the statement, the late Atakpa, populary called ‘Strong’, “was killed because he tried to block Governor Udom Emmanuel’s amnesty programme for members of the Ice-land cult group.”
The deal for the gang members, the statement revealed, was brokered by the deposed chairman of the Council, Mr Udomfu, who is currently standing trial along with others at the Chief Magistrate Court, Ukanafun.
It was gathered that notable politicians in the area, including the detained chairman, were in the habit of funding and arming the gang to terrorise political opponents, leading to several killings, robberies and kidnappings in the area.
“When the chairman could no longer control the gang, he impressed it on the governor to grant them amnesty, but the late Atakpa opposed the chairman, and was made to pay with his life,” a member of the dissolved Council, who would not want his name in print told the Nigerian Tribune.
Recalling the remote and immediate issues that led to the killing of Atakpa, who was murdered by armed hoodlums in his poultry farm at Ikot Udo Obobo, his home town on Easter Day, April 16, 2017, the statement reads:
“The late secretary was said to have frustrated the intention of the governor to grant amnesty to the Ice-land secret cult members in Ukanafun Local Government, which did not go down well with the Council Chairman and the leadership of the group.
“Consequently, the chairman allegedly ordered his Personal Assistant (PA) to organise members of the cult group to eliminate the Council Secretary to pave the way for the amnesty programme and promised a huge sum of money, if the job was successfully executed.”
The statement further revealed that the Chairman’s PA followed the instruction and held a meeting with some youth leaders, including the former youth leader of Ikot Akpa Nkuk village in Ukanafun, one Sunday Inanki (at large), as well as the current youth leader of the village, one Akaninyene Sunday Iwokto work out modalities to accomplish the task.
The current youth leader, the statement said, had to draft in some other hatchet men, including one Godwin Ikpe, alias ‘One Man Chop’ and one Akaninyene Jumbo Uko, populary called ‘Iso Akpafid’, who is also at large.
The police’s narrative, it was gathered, was borne out of the extract taken from confessional statements of some of the arrested suspects, who disclosed that the final plot to kill the late Council Secretary was hatched on April 15, 2017, at Ikpe Annang village in Etim Ekpo Local Government.
One principal suspect, simply identified as Udoudo and popularly called Archor Head\Executioner, Police said, was called in from his base in the neighbouring Port Harcourt, Rivers State and they jointly carried out the plot the following day, April 16, 2017.
“On April 16, 2017, the group led by Akaninyene Sunday Jumbo, alias Iso Akpafid, assembled at a hideout in Ikot Udo Obobo. Two of the members, Saturday Etim Isong, alias Satty and another popularly called Englishman (at large), were sent to confirm the presence of the secretary in his poultry farm after they had earlier spied with motorcycles”.
Iso Akpafid, according the Police Chief, supplied the guns used in the operation; Aniefiok Etukuko, alias Barbeach Archor Head fired the shot at the Secretary and his PA, while ‘Englishman’ fired in the air to scare away visitors, who came to celebrate Easter with the late secretary.
“The secretary died on the spot, while his PA, died the following day at the hospital,” he explained, adding that the suspects went away with the late secretary’s two mobile phones and a motorcycle.
He said his men, working with intelligence synergy in collaboration with the Rivers State Police, had to swing into action and arrested six suspects in their hideouts in Port Harcourt; warning that the law would be enforced to the letter, irrespective of whose ox was gored.