Ibusa, Delta State, Nigeria – By Sunny Ojeihomon.
Six married women were reportedly raped in the last two weeks by rapists who stormed Ibusa Community near Asaba, the Delta State Capital.
According to reports, the victims were raped at gun point during night fall while on their way home from the market.
This is even as a gang of cultists operating under a cult group called Ake Confraternity has allegedly killed one of their sponsors, a native doctor, and two others in Obiaruku community after what was described as fierce disagreement.
Reports said that the murdered native doctor had been responsible for charms used by the cultists while the two other victims were allegedly killed by stray bullets during a rival cult war that ensued last Wednesday.
Sources said that the rampaging rapists had also made lives uncomfortable for minors in Agbor town and some parts of Asaba community.
Confirming the incident, Delta State Police Public Relations Officer,
PPRO, DSP Celestina Kalu said the victims were taken to private hospitals where they were examined by the doctors and drugs administered on them.
Kalu said that official statistics of rape cases in the state indicated that from January to June 2014, the state recorded six cases while eight investigated and confirmed rapists were jailed, adding that rape and cultism are the major crimes thriving in Delta.
Describing the increasing rate of cultism in the state as alarming, Kalu disclosed that the police had initiated strategies to curb its menace, explaining that the measures had reduced drastically the activities to low air apart from robbery and kidnapping cases.
It was also gathered that the suspected rapists allegedly ambushed their victims around the popular Ibusa Market, raping and dispossessing them of their belongings before nightfall.
Two of the victims (names withheld) who spoke to our correspondent on their ordeals said “ we were brutalized by the suspects who dragged us into an uncompleted building around the market at gun point and in a commando-like manner they asked us to spread our legs”.
Speaking further, DSP Kalu said that over eight suspects were arrested in the wake of the incident, and that the suspects were currently helping the police at the state CID for further investigation.
