During a stop and search in Imo State, some tertiary institution students were apprehended for cultism.
While parading the suspects in Owerri, the state Commissioner of Police, Rabiu Ladodo, listed the suspects as Chinasa Nkwocha, 19; Chukwudi Ebendu, 25; Kelechi Anyaegbu, 33; Ikenna Amadi, 22; Chidiebube Emecheta, 26; Chibueze Unegbu, 23; Chiebube Anyanwu, 27; and Joseph Okereke, 26.
According to Ladodo, the suspects were members of the Black Axe Confraternity, who were arrested on their way from an initiation at Awo-Omamma in the Oru East Local Government Area of the State.
The police recovered from the suspects a locally-made gun, a live cartridge, a machete and a wrap of substance suspected to be Indian hemp.
The police commissioner said, “While on a stop and search duty on the Ogbaku/Onishta Road, Owerri, operatives of the Police Mobile Force, Squadron 18, Owerri, stopped one commuter bus with number plate ACA 22 WZ conveying 18 male persons suspected to be cultists.”
Ladodo further stated that the gun and machete recovered during the stop and search, were linked to Nkwocha, who’s a student of Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Owerri.