Blessing David,

By Nehru Odeh

The cult group she belongs to makes no bones about its identity. It is called the Marine Girls. Marine, in the local parlance, is a word that connotes underwater spirituality. However, before she was initiated into that cult she had to sleep with 10 men as part of initiation rites.

That was the confession Blessing David, a 19 year-old girl made while being paraded alongside 15 armed robbery suspects, six cultists, three kidnappers and four murder suspects at the headquarters of the Edo State Police Command in Benin City.

Among the cultists were three teenage girls who belonged to the Marine Girls. However, Blessing said she was initiated into the group in 2019.

“My name is Blessing David. I was initiated into the cult in 2019. “I slept with 10 men as part of the initiation process.” Blessing, who was arrested alongside six other cultists, said. She also confessed to being a member of the cult.  Another member of the group, 16 year- old  Ada Emeka, also said she slept  with 10 men as part of initiation rites.

However, while parading the suspects, the Commissioner of Police in Edo State, Mr Johnson Kokumo, said two suspected armed robbers were killed in the early hours of Thursday by operatives of the command.

“An eight-man robbery gang, who operated at the Amagba area of Benin City, robbed 13 houses, injuring victims with machetes and other weapons during the operation that started around 12am on Thursday and lasted till 3am. The police engaged them in a gun duel and in the process, two of them were killed,” Kokumo said.

One of the victims, identified simply as Eghosa, said she was sleeping with his wife in the bedroom when they were attacked, with the robbers pointing a torch light at them.

“It was at about midnight (yesterday); I was already sleeping with my wife that just put to bed, when they flashed torchlight into the house. They quietly removed the window and used blocks to hit the protector. Before I knew it, they had entered the house and started beating everybody.

They even injured my mother and my newborn baby, and smashed my wife’s smartphone against the wall when they could not use it.

“When they left my place, they robbed about 13 other houses before people called vigilante group and the police. When the police came, the robbers started exchanging gunfire with them. Two of them were killed and one arrested.

“This one was the one that smashed my wife’s phone,” he said, pointing at one of the suspects.