THE death toll in the ongoing reprisal killings by suspected cultists in Benin City hit five on Thursday as a man was reportedly gunned down on Wednesday night by suspected cultists in downtown Benin City, Edo State.
According to an eye witness report, the deceased who sells at one of the popular motor parks on Oba Market road was standing in front of his shop when suspected gun-toting cultists drove speedily by, screeched to a halt, alighted from the vehicle and pumped hot lead in him.
When the hoodlums came, they were said to have shot sporadically into the air and barked their battle cry, before shooting at the victim, vanishing speedily into the night after the attack which lasted less than two minutes.
Panicky roadside sellers abandoned their wares for safety when the first shots rang out, only to crawl out of their hiding places after the shooting.
The victim whose identity could not immediately be ascertained was said to have slumped on the sidewalk in a pool of his own blood.
The latest killing comes on the heels of the killing of four people in the Edo State capital by suspected cultists on Monday and Tuesday night in different parts of the metropolis.
On Monday, two persons were reportedly killed in a renewed hostility between two rival cult groups.
While one of the young victims was killed at Medical Stores Road area of Benin City on Monday night, the second was killed along Benin Technical College (BTC) Road by Universal Junction.
In what looked like a reprisal attack, another two persons were feared killed on Tuesday night in a bloody clash between suspected rival cultists in Benin City.
One of the deceased was gunned down at about 7 pm on the busy Lagos Street while the second victim was shot dead along Ugbague Lane between Forestry and Mission Road.
Speaking on his mobile phone, the Edo State Police spokesman, Mr Chidi Nwanbuzor said that he was yet to be briefed on the latest killing.
Nwanbuzor, a deputy superintendent of police, however, agreed that the serial killing bore the trademark of rival cult war which before now had abated before the partial lockdown of the state by Governor Godwin Obaseki as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said: “Investigations are ongoing. The police will unravel the circumstances surrounding the series of unfortunate killings of n the state. One thing, I can say for sure is that it is a cult war. We will get to the roots of the problem.”
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