Seven people were reportedly killed in a rival cult clash that rocked North Bank, a suburb of Makurdi, Benue State.
It was gathered that the clash which erupted Friday afternoon at the North Bank Market, near the Nigerian Army School of Military Engineering, NASME, followed a minor disagreement between two members of the rival red and black cult gangs.
The clash which later escalated into a bloody fight forced the market located around the area to close down.
The chairman of North Bank market, Cibilus Odinaka who narrated how the crisis started stated that one of the rivals came to the market to access some product and the other people saw him and harassed him.
“He went back and told his friends and they came back to fight. That was how the whole issue started. Between that Saturday and today (Monday), six persons have been killed,” Odinaka explained.
He said some of the dead also had their hands severed “and there were no injuries. They outrightly killed each other. One of the corpses had the head severed and nobody knows where they took the head to. Even hands were severed.
“From our findings its was a fight between the red and black cult. The red cult killed two, while the black killed four. And there was a commercial motorbike rider who was not a cult member but was killed in the cross fire.
“They also destroyed a house near a school. We learnt that one of the cult boys ran into the house when the rival gang members chased him. And for that reason they destroyed the house because the owners allowed the boy to escape into their house. All this happened throughout the weekend.
“But today (Monday) we have soldiers, DSS, Police, Hunters and others who are here in North Bank to make arrests and to ensure peace.”
