A renewed cult war in some parts of Benin City has reportedly claimed the lives of not less than eight people, especially in Upper Sokponba Road of the state capital.
Some sources claim that the death toll was not less than twenty in the last three days when the crisis started.
The latest clash is said to be between the Eiye and Vikings confraternities.Though the cause of the clash is not yet known, it was gathered that the issues escalated when some of the people believed to be leaders of the groups tried to resolve the crisis in a meeting called at Tipper Garage in the Idogbo area of Upper Sokponba Road and that “the attempt to settle matter did not work, after that, some Eiye men attacked the Vikings members and inflicted injuries’ on them with knives, but no life was lost. The Vikings, it was learnt, went back in their numbers and killed one of the top hierarchy members of Eiye. That was how the thing escalated, and after that, they killed another person called Oil Man, also an Eiye member. From there, they went two houses away and killed another person, so that is what led to Eiye deciding to start their retaliation.
There was a Viking member who was stabbed mercilessly, and they thought he was dead, but he was in the hospital. The challenge is that one of the groups does not accept the apology, and the other does not,” the source said.
When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer, Moses Yamu, said the police would respond at the appropriate time to the killings.
