Auchi Poly Cult Clash: Six Students Killed

Six Students Killed In Auchi Poly Cult Clash — There was palpable tension in Auchi, the administrative headquarters of Etsako West local government area of Edo State yesterday, following the reported killing of six persons believed to be students of the Federal Polytechnic, Auchi, in a bloody cult clash on Sunday night while several others were said to have sustained various degrees of injuries.

Sources said in what appeared to be a reprisal attack, the warring cult groups whose identity could not be ascertained stormed the residents of suspected rival cult members where they engaged themselves in a shoot- out, leaving residents to abandon their homes for fear of being hit by stray bullets.

Reporters gathered that the fight took a dangerous twist on Sunday evening when three middle-aged men were shot dead at Iyekhei community, a stone throw from the Polytechnic’s main campus.

Amongst those confirmed dead was a 45-year-old man identified as Shaka Yesufu who was killed at Habiba Hotel while drinking beer at the hotel’s bar that fateful night.

Witness told our correspondent that trouble started at the hotel when some men suspected to be cultists stormed the hotel in a commando style demanding to see the director, who had escaped.

The manager of the hotel who was said to have demanded from the men, numbering about eight, their mission, was also shot and it was while trying to save him that Shaka was shot on the head and died at the spot.

The corpses of some of the deceased were said to have been taken away by the police while family members of the late Shaka were also said to have taken away his body for burial. Source: Leadership Newspaper