A pastor (names withheld) of a new generation church in Akwa Ibom State has been arrested by the state Police Command for alleged involvement in cultism activities.
Elkana said “cultism has become a culture that if not checked will turn Akwa Ibom into serious crisis in the future. It has spread into churches. The last set of cultist we got is a pastor of a new generation church.”
He posited that “Every single community is divided into one, two or three cult groups. Where are the parents? Where are the elders? The youths are getting out of hand, and they are supposed to be the leaders of Akwa Ibom State tomorrow. They are posing a serious security threat in the future, if not checked. And that is why the Commissioner for Police asked the Anti-cultism unit and Anti-kidnapping unit to leave the headquarters and relocate to those areas identified as flash points.”
According to him, “Even now as am talking to you, the officer in-charge of Anti-kidnapping Unit is in Eastern Obolo. Another team is in Etim Ekpo. Already, their operational headquarters has been moved to Etim Ekpo and Ukanafun. Nobody stays in the office anymore- they should go to where the problem is, face the problem and come back with solutions and results.”
The PPRO remarked “We can only do little in terms of securing Akwa Ibom unless the people of Akwa Ibom are willing to make the state safe. Those cultists are sons and daughters of people living in those communities. They have relatives; they operate within the communities and people there don’t want to say anything. They don’t want to disclose their identity. The raw material police use is information. Information we receive is what we process and transform it into intelligence that we can use for operation.”
Elkana enjoined “We try to see how we can get support and cooperation over the last few months. We have established more platforms which the police and the people will interact on a regular basis. First, we want to deal with the problem of trust. We want to see how the people of Akwa Ibom can trust us, how we can sit together and talk. We believe the problems at the local communities are the ones we can fight collectively.”
“I have made it clear that some of us come from different states and communities, whatever we do for the local communities here is for the benefit of the people. My family is not here somebody is policing them somewhere. If the people we are sent to protect refuse to cooperate with us, at the end of the month we will still be paid our salaries,” he added.
