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The Bayelsa State Police Command yesterday said it stopped a bloody cult clash in which four students received deadly stab wounds and 10 others were arrested during the three-day national congress of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) in the state.

A student of the University of Jos, Comrade Mohammed Duada, emerged winner of the NANS election and was immediately congratulated by eight other aspirants and the governor of the state, Chief Timipre Sylva.

The police command, through its spokesperson, confirmed that the quick intervention of the men of the state security outfit known as ‘Famou Tamgbe’ led by the commander, Anniette Eyoh, thwarted the violent clash from spreading into other hotels in the state capital housing the student delegates to the NANS election.

LEADERSHIP gathered that the clash, which occurred on Tuesday night at about 7.30pm, threw the Udeme Hotel along Alamieseigha Way into confusion as students belonging to rival cult groups fought with guns and bottles. Some of the students were reported to have dived into the large swimming pool at the hotel premises to escape the fight.

Some of the students claimed that a candidate in the NANS election instigated the fight with a cult group known as Buccaneers, and he was resisted by delegates belonging to another unnamed cult group in the state. Some Famou Tamgbe sources confirmed that the fight threw the area into confusion until the police arrived.

Speaking on the incident, the spokesman of the Bayelsa Police Command, Mr. Emokpae Eguavoen, said that the injured students were rushed to the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa.

”Their conditions were critical and those arrested are detained at the headquarters of the Famou Tamgbe,” he revealed.

LEADERSHIP gathered that after the election, which ended yesterday at about 1am, Chief Sylva told the students that the political leaders in the country were worried when they look at the succeeding generation.

“We are worried at the behaviour of youths that are supposed to succeed us. But with the peaceful conduct of this election, the students have shown that there is still hope for the nation,” he said.