Governor Peter Odili of Rivers State has threatened that any body in the state who hides and cover-up cultists in the on going campaign to rid the state of the menace are accomplices and shall be treated as such when caught in line with the law.
Odili who gave the warning at an interdenominational church service to mark the end of a three-day prayer and fasting weekend added that “there will be no hiding place for cultists in the because they have sinned against God and Rivers people.”
The governor stressed at the church service organized the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) for the restoration of peace in the stat that “if a cult member is hiding in your house, holding meetings in your premises, know that you are an accomplice.”
He directed that copies of the state anti-cult law be produced and made available to every Rivers person so that nobody will plead ignorance. Odili called for useful information to security agencies and assured that the era when security of informants were not guaranteed is over as such information should be passed to government direct through specific telephone numbers including—08038745605, 084-23556 and 084-4888000.
The Governor assured that the state will come out triumphantly in the cult war, thanking the churches and Christians who had stood by the state government in prayers and fasting.
He warned that any child of the state who allows himself to be used as an agent of darkness to harm innocent citizens of the state would pay the price that God will impose on them.
Odili called for a minute silence in honor of all innocent souls lost in the cult fighting reassuring that the new security apparatus is now on ground, commending the President for his response to the request for increased security in the state.
In a sermon, Apostle G. D. Numbere of the Greater Evange-lism World Crusade said the menace in the state is a product of failure of families in bringing up their children properly as all cultists come from homes and have parents, who also attended churches.
“Let us not pass the bulk to government. Let us have a self-confession that as fathers, mothers, and as churches, we have failed and should therefore pray for forgiveness.”