Rampaging gun-toting cultists set ablaze police station in Delta

Rampaging gun-toting suspected cult members have set ablaze the Ubulu-Uku Police Station in Aniocha-South Local Government Area of Delta State and freed some suspects from the cell on Sunday.

It was gathered that a leader of a cult group and some of his members were detained in the station on Saturday night on attempt to break into a private residence in the community.

Sources said following the arrest and subsequent detention of the suspects, aggrieved members of the group invaded the station, freed their leader and others before setting the station on fire.

One of the vigilante operatives in the community, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said: “Our leader was notified that some people were robbing a house in Onicha-Uku Quarters, Ubulu-Uku. The owner of the house, simply identified as Osmosis, was outside the country on Thursday night. We raced to the place and arrested a notorious cultist, while others fled the scene.

“We handed over the suspect to Ubulu-Uku Police station. Thinking that he would be transferred to Ogwashi-Uku on Moo, his gang attacked the station, burnt the DPO’s office and released him from the cell. We later discovered that he was seen with his mom seeing him off last night, around past 11pm, but those who saw him didn’t know as at then that he was escaping from a police cell.

“When we visited the Station, the DCOs office was touched, part of the wall to the cell was broken. Some case files and two other offices were burnt, while there were no suspects, including the man we handed over to the station.

“I am very sure that the man we handed over to the police was released by the hoodlums. The problem is that the police station lacks manpower. I don’t think that there are more than three officers plus two supernumerary officials in the station.”

Another source who pleaded his name not to be on print, said “we are sure that the suspect was caught in the act of vandalising someone’s SUV at night. How come that immediately he was arrested, cultists stormed the station and released him. Some people saw his mother seeing him off, meaning that he has run away from the community, but the good thing is that he can’t run far before he will be arrested.”

However, Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Bright Edafe, said: “There was a fire outbreak in the station. The DCO has confirmed that there was a fire outbreak at the station, but that the fire only burnt his office and one other.”