Five persons have been reportedly killed during a clash between two rival cult groups in Urua Ekpa community, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
The incident, it was gathered started on Tuesday night and continued till Wednesday morning and was between members of the Viking confraternity and the Iceland group.
The cause of the fight could not be ascertained as at press time, but sources said the two groups were allegedly clashing over a girl.
An eyewitness, who pleaded anonymity narrated to some journalists who visited the area that “at about 9pm on Tuesday when I was returning home from the market, I heard a gunshot down the street and I thought it was a motor tyre bursting but after some time I heard another gunshot again. It was when I heard the second time that I knew something was wrong.
“A few minutes later, I heard people running and screaming and by this time the gunshots were everywhere, there was sporadic shooting.
“Since yesterday this area has been under serious security threat, we couldn’t sleep last night. Three persons including one of our neighbours have been killed”.
Another witness, who runs a barbing saloon along, Urua Ekpa road, Ita Idung, who identified himself as Akpan said “There was a big problem here in this village; there were some guys who were giving us a big problem here yesterday. They continued this morning and I can confirm to you that two persons have died in our street.
“I was preparing to come to my barbing saloon this morning, when a group of guys started chasing our neigbour from here, they later caught up with him down the street, where they mercilessly murdered him”.
It was gathered that many people lost their phones, hand bags, jewelries, cash and other valuables in the process of running for their lives.
Efforts to get the Police Public Relations Officer, Odiko Macdon, to comment on the clash proved abortive as he was not responding to the calls made to him by journalists. He could not respond to text messages either.
However, security has been intensified in the area by a team of policemen who have been deployed by the Akwa Ibom State police command to some Streets of the community.
