"During interrogations, (one of) the suspects claimed to be a sergeant and a serving member of the Nigeria Police Force in Lagos but later denied his earlier claim," the police said.

The police in Anambra State, Nigeria's South-east, say they have arrested three suspected cultists posing as police operatives in the state.

The police spokesperson in Anambra State, Tochukwu Ikenga, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday.

Mr Ikenga, a superintendent of police, said the suspects were arrested on Wednesday morning by police operatives of the Special Anti-Cultism Squad in Enugu Ukwu, Njikoka Council Area of the state.

The police spokesperson identified one of the suspects as Chidi Ekwesiri, a 50-year-old indigene of Umunya in Oyi Local Government Area of the state.

How they were arrested

Mr Ikenga said Mr Ekwesiri was first arrested when police operatives conducted a surveillance patrol along the Onitsha - Enugu Expressway by UNIZIK's Temporary Site in Awka.

"During interrogations, the suspect claimed to be a sergeant and a serving member of the Nigeria Police Force in Lagos but later denied his earlier claim," the police spokesperson said.

"Further information from the suspect led to the arrest of two other suspects who are currently undergoing police interrogation," he stated.

Mr Ikenga said the police operatives later recovered one automatic pump action gun and a police uniform from the suspects.

He said Mr Ekwesiri has confessed that the gun was given to him by a yet-to-be-identified man at Ukpo, another community in Dunukofia Local Government Area of the state.

The spokesperson said the Commissioner of Police in Anambra State, Nnaghe Obono, has ordered the immediate transfer of the case to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Awka, for investigation.

"The suspects will be charged to court at the conclusion of the investigations," he said.