The Delta State police command has debunked allegations by activist, Harrison Gwamnishu, that some primary and secondary school students were using the ‘snake bite’ method as cult initiation in primary and secondary schools in the state.
In a post shared on social media on Wednesday, May 24, Gwamnishu said the initiation process known as “snake bite” has allegedly been performed on 61 students of a private school in Asaba.
Sharing some videos and a picture of the marks on the students, he urged parents to keep a close eye on their children. He also said he has tendered all the evidence to the State Ministry of Education for further investigation.
Reacting to his claims, in a statement on Thursday night signed by the Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, DSP Bright Edafe, the command said having examined the video clip and carried out its investigations, the narrative by the said activist is false and should be completely disregarded.
The statement reads in full: “The Command is aware of a viral video clip on various social media handles that captions an activist in one of the secondary schools around 74 area, Asaba, Delta state.
The command, having examined the video clip and carried investigation, wishes to debunk the narrative by the said activist as false and should be completely disregarded. The command wishes to state as follows;
On receipt of the video clip, the commissioner of Police, CP Wale Abass, immediately directed the Area Commander Asaba, ACP Sunday Oladipo and the command public relations officer, DSP Edafe Bright to proceed to the school for an on the spot investigation.
On arrival at the school premises, the school pupils, teacher, and one of the parents were interrogated. A mother to one of the affected children stated that her children said it was a game in the school tagged ‘snake bite’ and nothing more to it.
The PPRO probed further to ascertain the claim and interviewed the school pupil, which led to an interesting discovery. One Uche surname unknown aged 9 years told his younger brother, known as Emeka, surname unknown aged 6yrs about the game called ‘snake bite’ and the younger brother obliged. When the said Uche was asked how it was done, he said it’s a piece of paper that is used to do it. The PPRO then asked if it could be done on him, and the child accepted.
The PPRO offered his hands, and the child used a small white paper to rub the back of his palm, which gave rise to the exact mark on the same spot that is being wrongly portrayed as cult initiation.
It became clear that it is a harmless trend among school children and not a cult initiation process as it was wrongly portrayed by the said activist. The command therefore urges parent to be calm and ignore the false claim making the rounds, also, it is noteworthy that any right thinking person who noticed such a trend ordinarily will go into proper investigation and also inform the police to investigate before posting on social media. It is again advised that the false publication should not be taken seriously.”
The police also released video clips of the statements by the pupils, the mother, and the clip of the act being carried out on the hands of the PPRO.
Credit: DeltaPoliceNG/Twitter
