The Nigeria Police Force Bayelsa State Command said on Friday that there were no more cult killings in the state.
The state commissioner of police, Mr. Julian Okpaleke, said in Yenagoa that the police had wiped out all gang related activities in the state since 2007.
Okpaleke stated this while ruling out any connection between the murder cases its detectives were investigating and the massacre of 13 members of the Ocean Boys Supporters Club in Ughelli, Delta State last week.
The incident left the combined security agencies in the two states bewildered as the motives for the killings are yet to be determined.
“What we have are two cases of murder and there is nothing to link them to cult killings. Although the Ughelli incident is outside our jurisdiction, we have not been able to link what happened there to this place,” Okpaleke said, adding that Bayelsa was safe for law abiding citizens to carry out their lawful activities.
There had been public concern that the Ughelli incident was a spill over of some gang related killings, particularly when families of the victims have been reluctant to come forward.
The police commissioner, however, stressed that Bayelsa State was the only state in the Niger Delta region where people still enjoyed an active night life because of the strategy adopted by his field commanders.
“If we are not working, things would have been different. This is one of the most peaceful states in Nigeria. In several states people do not go out at night, but in this state people enjoy peace. People go to the night clubs and enjoy themselves. If we are not working people will not be so free,” he said.
Okpaleke added that the kind of vicious bank robberies witnessed in other states had never happened in Bayelsa because of the efforts of the police, saying that the police could do more if they had better cooperation from the public.
On the dead football supporters, he said the command would get a report from the Commissioner of Police in Delta State because the victims were from Bayelsa State .
“We are trying to see if there is any connection between the murder cases and the killing in Ughelli. We have to do a thorough investigation to link it with cult activities,” he said.