Cultists kill 2 mothers, son in Benin

Two mothers were on Monday night killed by suspected cultists at different locations in Benin, Edo State.The two mothers were killed when the suspected cultists attacked the homes of their targets around the Murtala Muhammed Way and the New Benin Area in the state capital.
While the woman at Murtala Muhammed Way was killed for lying over the whereabouts of her son, the other was killed for failure of the cultists to locate her son at home.

An eyewitness disclosed that the armed men stormed the Virginia Junction by the Murtala Muhammed Way at about 8:00 p.m. in search of their target, said to be a 20-year-old boy.

They were said to have first gone to the store belonging to the mother of their target but when they asked the woman about the whereabouts of her son, she told them that she had not set eyes on him for over two weeks.

They were said to have gone to the residence of the boy and found him at home, where they shot and killed him.Angered that the woman had lied to them, they went back to her shop and also shot her dead.

A similar incident happened at New Benin, where the suspected cultists shot the mother of their target when they could not find her son at home.
An eye witness said the woman was shot in the eye and died immediately.

NAN reported that over 20 persons had died within the past three weeks since the renewed cult war started in the Edo State capital.

The reprisal killings were said to have started immediately after the elections, when a member of a cult group was killed during the polls.
The spokesman of the state police command, Mr Stephen Onwochei, told newsmen that some arrests had been made in connection with the killing of the women.

When asked about the number of persons that have been killed since the renewed war started, he said: "I cannot give you the accurate figure but we are compiling and once we are done, we will parade them. We are still investigating."

Nigerian Tribune..