Students of the Uyo High School along Oron Road, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, have been asked to temporarily vacate the school premises as suspected cultists threatened to kill the principal, Mr Michael Etuk, if he fails to release their members arrested by the police within 24 hours.

The Chairman of the State Secondary School Board, Dr Ekaette Okon, was mandated by the Commissioner of Education, Mrs Idongesit Etiebet, to shut down the school on Thursday.

The school area was said to have witnessed cult clashes, including a clash near a filling station located opposite the school.

A source said about six suspected cultists were arrested and taken to Ikot Akpanabia Police Division after the filling station attack.

It was gathered that some cultists dropped fetish objects near the office of the principal with two warning note pasted on the principal’s office door.

The note reads “We give you 24- hours to release our boys or we fall you. Remember we know your house, children and wife, Iwok close. Mr Principal we always defend you, but you are fighting us. We wash our hands off your case; we fight for you no more.”

The principal of the school, Michael Etuk, could not reached for comments, but the Commissioner for Education, Etiebet, when contacted, responded with a text message saying, “I’m in a meeting, I have directed the chairman Secondary education board to temporarily close down the school.”

A student, Miss Keziah Joseph, said the students were shocked to see the fetish objects around the principal’s office, adding that they were asked to vacate the school to avoid crisis.