How varsity student was killed during cult initiation - Police

The Bayelsa State police command yesterday announced the killing of a 200- level student of petro chemical engineering of Niger Delta University, Ammassoma, Mr. Tariebi Tyger, during a forceful initiation exercise by some unidentified cult group.

According to the police, the 21 years old undergraduate was wooed by the cultists but he turned them down. He was later forcefully taken from his hostel on the 15th of December and an initiation exercise done.

The police public relations officer, Mr. Fidelis Odunna, told Leadership that though the police had arrested persons suspected to have taken part in the murder, it gathered that the victim passed out during the heavy beating meted out during the initiation and died.

“They forcefully took the boy from his hostel to initiate him into a cult and in the process, the boy passed out. They threw his corpse into the river. We are going to arraign them very soon”, he said.

Leadership gathered that the deceased was the son of a police officer in the state.

The grandfather of the deceased, Mr. Lucky Daniel, told our correspondent in Yenagoa that Tyger was abducted from his hostel at Amasoma in Southern Ijaw local government area by some suspected cultists.

He said Tyger was bundled to a house in Otuan on December 15, 2012 where he was murdered by the cultists who later threw his corpse into the river.

“The cult group gruesomely murdered him, tied his legs with block sinkers and threw it into the river”, he said.

He said his parents suspected a foul play few days after Tyger left them in Yenagoa on December 10 to resume his studies in the university.

He said that efforts by his parents to reach the 21 years old undergraduate on his telephone proved abortive forcing them to begin a search operation.

“His parents became worried and swung into action to locate him in his hostel accommodation. To their chagrin and utmost disappointment, they observed that the door of his room was broken but he was nowhere to be found.

“In their frantic efforts to locate their missing son, the parents contacted his erstwhile room mate who was his closest associate at the time. He joined the parents as a sympathiser in the search”, he said.

Daniel who identified himself as the maternal grandfather of the deceased said the matter was later reported to the police.