Efio-Ita Nyok|14 May 2019
Mr Eyo Ekpo the former gubernatorial candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP in Cross River State in the just concluded 2019 general elections has said that cultism in the state is an industry that will continue to grow NEGROIDHAVEN can say.
Mr Ekpo made this known yesterday through his social media account while contributing to the debate on Cross River cyberspace inspired by the gruesome hacking to death of over two suspected cultists in the renewed rivalry between gangster groups in Calabar the state capital.
According to him, 'Until we open our eyes and look beyond the money for leaders with moral courage and character it is certain that cultism is one “industry” in Cross River State that will continue to grow…and take the lives of our young people.'
Mr Ekpo who disclosed that the reason for the renewed rivalry between some of these cults groups is as a result of the dearth of money sequel to the conduct of the general elections added that politicians having used and abandoned these groups have allowed them to their fate all alone.
He asserted that a leadership without moral character but an emphasis on materialism will precede the growth of cultism and its related deadly activities in Cross River.
His words, 'It is not a coincidence that these events are happening after the elections. Politicians have used these young men and have now moved on. The flow of cash has been cut off and the various groups have turned inward and outwards to settle scores of all sorts.'
Continuing Ekpo observed that,' Membership of a cult group is one of the most difficult things to prove. Why? Members will almost invariably not inform, outsiders who know are ruled by fear and, especially, in Cross River State, they have sponsors and members in very high places in Government. Once upon a time no one publicly justified this devilish deviant behaviour but today we now have people emerging to defend and even justify it.
'It is safe to presume that anyone wielding a weapon in attack or in defence in a cultic battle on the streets of Cross River State (and we know when these things happen) is a cultist. No amount of legalistic or sentimental talk should shift our moral compass. People who indulge in this sub-human and most wicked activity have brothers, sisters, relatives and parents WHO ALL KEPT QUIET for whatever reason. If you live by violence (and these people are extremely violent) and die by it, that is the fate you deliberately chose.
'Let us not lose our humanity on the altar of legalism. What about the victims of cultism? Young ladies who refused to fall to members’ amorous attention, young men who refused induction, their own relatives who were against their evil ways, “wicked” lecturers, innocent people caught in the crossfire, our larger society that is shunned by outsiders. Who will mourn the many victims of this evil activity who far outnumber the perpetrators.
'Still, one can’t blame only these misguided young men. Ultimately many of them are cannon fodder for politicians and society’s Big Men who use them for their shortsighted selfish ambitions but forget that once you give an untrained person a weapon and fail to teach him to use that weapon ethically, and that person takes a life, no one on Earth except one better armed can take that weapon away – which has hardly happened in this country.'
