By Friday Idachaba, Lokoja.
Security operatives in Kogi State Polytechnic, Lokoja, have arrested a suspected cultist, one Jeremiah Moses alleged to be on a mission to initiate students of the Institution.
Moses who is not a student of the Polytechnic was arrested at the gate of the Lokoja campus on September 30, while in the company of three students of the Institution.
Head, Public Relations and Protocol Unit of the Polytechnic Mrs Uredo Omale, disclosed this in a statement made available to newsmen on Saturday in Lokoja.
Omale said that the culprit who claimed to be a University graduate, along with his alleged accomplices, attempted to invade the Polytechnic on Friday when HND II Public Administration students were writing their final papers.
According to her, Moses who claimed to be an Igbo by tribe but currently resides at Anyigba with his Father said his mother was resident in Lokoja.
Omale further explained that the Chief Security Officer of the Polytechnic, had reported that the suspect came to the campus in a metallic Toyota Camry with Registration Number: LKJ 22 HK, in company of Bakawo Abdul (M), Abdul Muktar (M) and the driver whose name is so far unknown.
She said that in the course of their interception and interrogation by the Polytechnic’s security officers, the suspect, Jeremiah Moses and the three others in the car got out and took to their heels.
They were however, given a hot chase by the security personnel who later apprehended Moses wearing a cap (beret) with the Insignia of Aye secret cult confraternity while the rest three escaped.
According to the institution’s Head of PR and Protocol Unit, Moses has since been handed over to the police for further investigation while efforts are being made to get the fleeing three suspects.
She hinted that Campus invasion by cultists at the end of Second Semester Examinations, ostensibly for initiation and attacks, was a routine occurrence in the institution before the inception of the current leadership Dr Salisu Usman Ogbo as Rector.
Omale revealed have, that since the inception of Dr Ogbo led administration, the ritualists have been dealt a severe blow saying that series of attempts to resuscitate cultistism activities in the Polytechnic have been nipped in the bud.
She said that the arrest and subsequent hand over of the suspected cultist to the Police came barely three weeks after the arrest of one Friday Momoh, a suspected illicit drug peddler and cultist.
According to her, Momoh was arrested at the entrance (main campus gate) of the Polytechnic by the eagle-eyed and gallant security operatives of the institution.
It would also be recalled that one Shehu Tenimu Mohammed a student of the Polytechnic, was arrested at the entrance of the institution in 2021, while in possession of arms and ammunition while making his way to the campus.
According to her, the Rector has warned those parading firearms in the institution without authorisation claiming to be security agents to desist or would have the institution’s authority to contend with.
The Rector therefore appealed to all and sundry to operate within the ambit of the law, she said.