The Aleto community in Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers State and the Eleme Area Command of the Nigeria Police Force have traded blames over the killing three persons the police claimed were cultists.
James Jonah, Igbariwe Osaro and another one simply identified as Kemkem were killed by the police last week over alleged cult activities.
But the youths in the community disagreed, saying that the deceased were innocent youths caught by the police when the suspected cultists had fled.
Asarolo Samuel, a youth leader in the community said the three youths killed by the police were not cultists but innocent young men who were singled out and shot dead.
He called on the state command of the police to bring the killer-policemen to book.
But the police insisted that the youths were cultists.
The police debunked the claims by residents who insisted that the boys the police killed were not cultists.
The Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of Eleme Area Command, Martin Nworgoh said, “the Divisional Police Officer of Eleme Police Division received distress calls.
“The DPO and his men moved quickly through the Aleto axis of Eleme and ran into the cultists.
“Immediately the cultists sighted the police, they (cultists) who were terrorizing the area opened fire on the police.
“The police returned fire on them (the cultists) and three were fatally wounded while others ran away with bullet wounds.
“The police rushed the fatally wounded ones to the hospital but were later confirmed dead.”
The police, however, said investigations were still on and promised to give more details to the press when necessary.
