Daily Independent Online.
*
Monday, June 14, 2004.
Politicians back cult groups, Rivers
legislators allege
By Odudu Okongete
Reporter,
Port Harcourt
For
the first time since the outbreak of cult violence in Rivers State, some
members of the state House of Assembly have accused influential and powerful
politicians in the state of giving financial and moral support to cult groups.
Contributing
to the debate on the Secret Cult and Similar Activities (Prohibition) Bill 2004
on the floor of the House, the Deputy Speaker, Mr. Tonye Harry, said these
category of people are the ones that prevail on security agencies to release
arrested cult members.
Harry,
who expressed shocked that most members of the House shied away from debate on
the matter, was emphatic that cultism would only stop in the state when the
financiers sever links with the perpetrators. He therefore suggested the
setting up of a special task force or structure to lead the campaign against
cultism, averring that members of the public were afraid to volunteer
information about cult members because the police often reveal the information
as well as the source to the miscreants.
While
admonishing the elite who sponsor such groups to purge themselves of the evil,
he lamented that the scourge has virtually rubbished whatever achievements
recorded by the Governor Peter Odili administration in the last five years. He
also suggested that the screening of cult members should begin with the
Assembly members.
The
House Leader, Mr. Tamunosisi Gogo-Jaja, also lamented that leaders of cult
groups have resisted arrests because of the backing they receive from powerful
people in the state, noting that those saddled with the job of enforcing laws
were shying away from their responsibility and were also guilty of cultism.
He
pointed to a recent leaflet allegedly circulated by a group in Port Harcourt
warning drivers to switch off their headlights nor blare their horns whenever
they meet them on the road, and wondered why the police have not taken any
action weeks after the leaflets were circulated even when the group drives
around at night without headlights.
