Cultists hack Benue state university student & girlfriend to death (photo)

A cult war in the Benue State University, Makurdi, has claimed the life of a 21-year student of the Department of Geography, Solomon Aondoaseer, who was gruesomely murdered along with his girlfriend on Wednesday.

The arrested suspects

Aondoaseer and his girlfriend, whom the police identified as a food vendor in the area where the student lived, were hacked to death in front of a private hostel where he lived.

The girlfriend identified as Doofan Agbaja, was said to have become a fatal victim of a war she knew nothing about when she spent the night at Aondoaseer’s room.

Saturday PUNCH was told that as the attack took place, the two victims screamed for help but no one 
dared to come to their rescue.

The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Mr. Moses Yamu, who confirmed the incident, said they did not kill them inside the house but took them outside.

“The assailants pulled them out of the compound to an open ground in front of the house and hacked them to death with machetes,” he said.

Students of the university said Aondoaseer was a member of a rival cult group called the Red Viper, who had had a running battle for supremacy with the Black Axe members in the campus.

Yamu said five suspects have been arrested in connection with the killing.

The suspects were identified as Paul Adum (aka Reborn), Thaddeus Ukaaku (aka Waters), Damian Swem (aka Dammy), Terkumbur Gber (aka Shanke) and Teryila Aondona (aka Nasco).

The PPRO said they have also confessed to the crime and claimed that they killed the victim because he belonged to a rival group.

Benue State has seen an upsurge of killing by campus cultists in recent times.

Two weeks ago, two students were gunned down by suspected cultists in front of the Benue State Polytechnic, Ugbokolo, around 8pm on September 28.

In June, students of the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, and a security man attached to a private students’ hostel in the school were killed by suspected cultists.

Also in July, suspected cultists shot and killed a retired policeman and his son in Makurdi.