Three soldiers have been arrested by security apparatuses in Borno State for allegedly belonging to a cult group, Neo Black Movement (NBM).
Arrested along with the soldiers – Lance Corporals Augustine Aronlo, David Emmanuel and Private Onu Chidubem – were 22 others, mostly undergraduates, the Borno State Police Commissioner, Mohammed Aliyu, who paraded the suspects, said
Aliyu said NBM has members across students of higher institutions in Maiduguri and business community, adding that the group recruited personnel of the Nigerian Army.
He said the group were caught at 2am in a hotel built at a deserted area of Maiduguri during an initiation gathering.
Aliyu, who was flanked at the briefing by both the heads of Department of State Security Service and National Security and Civil Defence Corps in Borno State, said:
”The strategies put in place have again yielded results as 25 members of Neo Black Movement (NBM) were arrested for criminal conspiracy, unlawful assembly, cultism and armed robbery.
”Following a tip-off, a total of Twenty Five (25) members of the Neo Black Movement (NBM) cult most of whom are students of University of Maiduguri, Ramat Polytechnic and dismissed military personnel were arrested by the command operatives in collaboration with Hunters in Bagani Hotel at Fillin Maideribe, Abuja Sharaton while they were unlawfully gathered and conducting their initiation procession with candles, calabashes containing reasonable quantity of red substance suspected to be human blood and charms of different kinds.
“Meanwhile, on sighting command operatives/hunters, one of them (now at large) fired a gun shot in the air and took to his heels.
He said that the NBM had been intimidating innocent persons, conspiring and robbing filling stations of valuables within Maiduguri while armed with dangerous weapons.
The suspects were nabbed with 16 mobile phones of different make, three calabashes containing a reasonable quantity of red liquid suspected to be human blood, one live 7.62mm ammunition, among others.
Meanwhile, some of the arrested suspects who spoke to journalists insisted that they were not cultists and that the substance in the calabashes were local drinks with some alcohol to make them high.
The head of military counter-insurgency in the North East (Theatre Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole), Maj. Gen. Olusegun Adeniyi, handed over the soldiers to the police. He said since their arrest they have been tried and dismissed from the Army.
He, however, warned that the suspects should not be dismissed as cultists as facts pointed to the fact that they are armed robbers and kidnappers.
He said before the arrest, the military authorities in the areas have received intel of planned kidnapping of university students under the guise of one of the numerous crimes committed by Boko Haram.
He assured members of the public that the military was out to ensure of their lives and property and that no one even soldiers found culpable would be spared.
