As the Ubima Security and Advisory Planning Committee (USPAC) intensifies the war against criminals in Ubima Community, Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State, some alleged members of the Degbam and Icelanders cult groups are said to have taken refuge in a popular Pentecostal Church in Port Harcourt.
Information revealed that the cultists who have been terrorizing Ubima and other parts of the council, fled to the church and promised to denounce all criminal activities in a bid to evade justice.
Natives of the community who pleaded anonymity revealed to our reporter that the development followed a serious clampdown by security operatives in collaboration with the vigilante group on criminal elements who have made the area ungovernable in recent times.
The source disclosed that the suspected cultists have been trooping to the church in their numbers with the belief that they will be off the radar of security agencies and the state Government.
Most of the cultists, we also learnt have become workers in the church.
Meanwhile, reports also have it that one Oscar Welle, who was declared wanted by the authorities of Ikwerre Local Government Area on October 10, 2019 for alleged kidnapping is among those taking refuge at the worship centre to seek forgiveness.
When contacted, the Legal Adviser to the Ubima Community Development Committee (CDC), Chijioke Woke told our reporter that giving up the unholy life of criminality for a civilized living style is a welcome development. Mr. Woke however, expressed doubt that the repentance was genuine, stressing that the Ubima Community cannot be hoodwinked to receive the former cultists in a hurry.
Mr Woke stated that it will take time for some of the natives to forget the atrocities perpetrated by the hoodlums.
Ubima community had been in chaos recently due to supremacy battle between cult groups in the area. So many natives had fled the community in the wake of re-newed hostilities in month of August, 2019, eight weeks after the group signed a peace accord.
