Juliana Francis
The Rivers State Police Command has arrested two teenage boys, who revealed that they joined cultism to stop their mothers’ lovers to stop battering them.
The two boys are 20 years old Gift Justice Hart and Raphael Green. Hart is said to be a confessed member of the Dey-Bam cult group.
According to the Rivers State Police Command, “Gift was born out of wedlock and lives with his mother and her partner from Green Compound. He said he had no relationship with his biological father, even though he had seen him on a few occasions and had a knowledge of where he lived. His mother had catered for him and his education since he was born.
“After completing his secondary education at Community Secondary School Bonny, he enrolled in a scaffolding workshop at Berger Road, Bonny, under the tutelage of a famous scaffold trainer, Mina.
“While undergoing the training, he met another trainee, Raphael Green, with whom he forged a friendship. The friendship bond became stronger when they realised they had similar situations at home.
“Raphael was also living with his mother, who was in a relationship with another man from Peter-side compound who was not his father, and that relationship yielded four children. This was in addition to the three children she had gotten from another man from the Pepple compound.
“The young men also had similarities in the condition that both their mothers were being physically assaulted by their partners.”
The Police further explained that Green, feeling the need to protect his mother from her partner, went to speak with some of his old classmates at Bonny National Grammar School who were notorious cultists. They offered to “blend him into their cult group, Dey-Bam, and he eagerly consented.”
One night, the young man was taken to the Bonny Sand filled, where he was blindfolded and given the beaten of his life and then compelled to drink gin mixed with blood.
The Police narrated: “There his journey into cultism began; at the tender age of 18. He proceeded to reveal his identity to his mother’s partner and threatened to hurt him if the beating continued. The mother’s partner has since left the mother.
“For Gift, his foray into cultism started a year after Raphael. He was particularly frustrated that he could not confront his mother’s partner, Biowuma. Biouwuma was a cult leader in the Iceland cult group and was notorious for coordinating cult activities in the Bonny Local Government Area. He was a feared person, and Gift decided to join a rival cult group so that he could match him.
“He stated to the Police that after his final WAEC SSCE paper at age 17, he went to one Idamina in Green compound, a senior member of Dey-Bam cultist in Bonny Local Government and demanded to be onboarded. His demand was accepted, and he was initiated at the Bonny Sand-filled.
“After he recovered from the initiation, he immediately confronted Biowuma, who laughed off his confrontation and warned him sternly to stay out of his business. As the tension between him and his mother’s live-in partner grew, Gift later left his mother’s house to live with Raphael and other members of the Dey-Bam group.”
Biowuma thought he had succeeded in making Hart continue to fear him, he did not know that Hart went to gather further self-courage.
One day, Biowuma had an altercation with Hart’s mother and proceeded to beat her up. When Hart got wind of it, he visited his mother’s house and fought with him.
During the fight, he attacked Biowuma with a stick, inflicting injury on his head.
Hart ran off after the fight, but his mother’s partner continued to search for him to retaliate. However, in September 2023, Biowuma was arrested for leading members of the Iceland cult to steal construction equipment from the Local Government Council, and he was incarcerated after trial.
The arrest of Biowuma spared Hart a reprisal but did not prevent the Police from arresting him, Green and other Dey-Bam cultists after a cult clash between rival cult groups, Iceland and Dey-Bam, in Bonny left a victim brutally amputated on his left wrist.
The Police had used soft targets to locate the hideouts of the cultists, and on February 21, 2024, stormed the residence where the young men lived with other Dey-Bam cultists.
They were arrested and taken to the Bonny Division of the Rivers State Police Command and later transferred to the Anti-Cultism Unit.
Investigations are ongoing, and the suspects have been cooperative.
The Commissioner of Police, Rivers State Police Command, CP Tunji Disu, has expressed concern over the increasing relationship between dysfunctional homes and crime. He noted that, like Hart and Green, a significant number of criminals had a troubled childhood.
He charged parents and guardians with modelling good behaviour to their children and wards at all stages of their development, stressing that the home was the most significant agent of socialisation.
He further gave a warning to all cultists in the state that the Rivers State Police was resolved to clamp down on them.
