I killed to avenge friend’s death –Cultist

A 20-year old man, Joberi Pyagbara, now in police custody for his involvement in cult activities, has told City News that he killed a member of a rival cult group and buried him in a remote community to conceal his deed.Pyagbara spoke to City News shortly after he was paraded, together with 30 other cult members, by the police. He said he could not have a rival cult group kill his friends without fighting back. According to him, he identified one of the cult members that killed his friend around his Eken community in Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State and clubbed him to death.

The young man, currently benefitting from the Federal Government Amnesty Programme, said killing, before he was arrested, gave him a sense of satisfaction as a member of a cult group. On how he was caught, he said he and other cult members were arrested during a rival cult war.

He said, “I was arrested by the police because of cultism. It was during a community fight. Members of a cult group killed some of my friends and we decided to avenge and killed two. When the other cult group (Demua) came, they scattered the community. Many people ran away while they killed our friends. I belong to Dewell.

“We don’t kill, but when anybody offends us, we go after him. They (other cult group) started it all by killing our members and we had to fight back. It is true that I killed one person and buried him in my community, Eken in Khana Local Government Area. I dug a small grave and did it (buried him). As a cultist, I felt satisfied when I killed those who killed my friends.”

On why he went back to violence after embracing the Federal Government Amnesty Programme, Pyagbara said, “Though we surrendered our weapons when the amnesty programme came, when we noticed that a rival cult group was attacking us and killing some of our friends, we had to look for arms and decided to revenge.

“I am 20 years old. I am part of the amnesty programme; I have never involved myself in crime after the amnesty, but the killings of my friends took me back to cultism. Those cult people cut our friends’ head and then we agreed that we must avenge.”

Pyagbara, however, promised that he would turn a new leaf if he was released by the police, adding that bad company led him to crime. “I joined cultism in 2006. We always hustle to get money to finance the group.

“I work as a conductor or collect money from commercial drivers at bus-stops. If I am freed, I will be a good person and will not join cultism again. I regret all my actions, especially the killings,” he added.