UNICAL security arrest suspected cultists with hard drugs  

The internal security operatives in the University of Calabar have arrested two suspected cultists for being in possession of packs of 100mg of tramadol on campus.

The suspects, Abarakwe Darlington, 23 and Asuquo Effiong, 25, were arrested following an interrogation from the security operatives.

They were said to have allegedly beat up an ice cream vendor, George Emmanuel, who had raised an alarm that he sold ice cream to the suspects and they refused to pay him.

The Acting Chief Security Officer of the University, retired SP Usani Okon-Etim, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday that the suspects were arrested close to the moot court on campus.

“These two suspects bought ice cream from the seller and they refused to pay him, rather they started flogging him. The boy however, raised alarm and some people around got across to us.

“After arresting them, we conducted a search on them and in the process, we found packs of tramadol 100mg and other drugs suspected to be hard drugs too.

“It appears they sell them to students in the university. As security operatives on campus, we don’t tolerate the use of hard drugs by students on campus and if anyone is caught, we will hand such a person to the relevant security agencies.

“I am suspecting that these suspects are not students because their matriculation number does not tally with what we have,’’ he said.

The acting chief security officer told NAN that the Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Florence Obi, frowns at any act of students’ involvement in hard drugs on campus.

“The VC has repositioned the security unit with better training and provision of modern gadgets to help us do our work effectively, hence the surveillance unit is very responsive to cases of emergency on campus,’’ he added.

Okon-Etim handed over the suspects to operatives of the Anti-Kidnapping and Cultism Unit of the Police Command in Cross River for onward investigation and possibly prosecution.

The ice cream seller, Emmanuel, told NAN that he sustained some injuries as a result of the beating by the suspects who told him that they were members of Axe confraternity cult group.

“As soon as they refused to pay me for my ice cream, they beat me up and started shouting that they are members of Axe confraternity.

“At that point, I raised alarm and the people around came to my aid by calling the surveillance unit that responded swiftly,’’ he said.

One of the suspects, Effiong, told NAN that his friend, one Kinglsey, gave him the drugs to give to his friend Timothy on campus before the security operatives arrested him.