PORT HARCOURT � RESIDENTS of Ogbogoro Community, Obio/Akpor Council, Rivers State now live in fear following death threats allegedly received by seven chiefs, elders and community leaders from runaway cult leader, Nna Dede, also known as Master and his group. The suspected cultists were recently dislodged by the Joint Task Force from their base.
They are suspected of killing three chiefs of the town after attempts were made to invite the JTF to the community.
Vanguard gathered that the gang leader and �10 of his key boys� escaped arrests when the JTF arrived the place. However, six suspects were picked up but were said to be reluctant followers who had no choice �but joined the gang out of fear� of being marked as opponents.
The chiefs who did not want to be mentioned said they received the threats through phone calls from Dede �who is in hiding, telling us that he was in constant touch with happenings in the village through his boys who are in the village.
�We tend to believe him because he repeats exactly what each person had said in a given meeting. These boys are very deadly and we have told the soldiers about these threats, they cannot come when the military is here.�
Scores of vehicles were seen yesterday in the community hauling the luggage of some frightened tenants of landlords who had either been arrested or were on the run from the military men. Most of the fleeing tenants are non-natives of Ogbogoro village.
Some of the landlords in the community �are known cultist who give support to these boys and have been arrested by the soldiers. That is why their tenants are running away so that their property will not be burnt like the ones of those people in hiding,� said a source.
Based on the development, residents of the group of villages have appealed to the state government and JTF to establish a permanent military base in the place.�We are not even sure of the police because we were not safe here before the soldiers arrived in spite of police presence,�they said.
As part of the security arrangement of the JTF, armoured tanks were seen patrolling the entire area, just as soldiers patrol on foot round various suspected dark alleys such as lonely paths and inter-village link roads. The waterfronts in Rumuwoke village where the human parts were discovered has been �sealed by soldiers� while the villagers have equally fled the area, apparently to escape being linked to the cultists or from becoming targets in reprisal attacks by followers of the cult leaders who are currently on the run.