“This community is fast becoming a too terrible to live in. Imagine, just yesterday, a young girl was killed yesterday at the other street. They said the people who did it were cultists. We don’t know what to do again.’
“They just murdered the girl, maybe for ritual reasons. May God help us.’’
Again, cultists are on the rampage. From Lagos, Ogun, Edo and to many other states across the country, cultists are everywhere with what looks like a common mission: wreaking havoc, maiming and killing people. In fact, no state is spared of their orgy of violence.
Only last week, 19 suspected cultists were arrested in the Alakuko area of Lagos after rival cult clashes. Those arrested were later transferred to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID), Panti, Yaba, for what the police called ‘discreet investigation’.
Apart from their nefarious undertakings, the cultists were also accused by state police spokesman, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, of ‘’taking advantage of the tension in the area to rob unsuspecting members of the public of their valuables’’.
Adejobi stated that, sometimes, the cultists were ‘joined’ in their acts of mayhem by area boys who allegedly burgled shops belonging to residents and shop/owners, while looting goods from them.
Last November, the state police command announced the arrest of 13 persons accused of belonging to cult groups. Specifically, last November 8, the command said it arrested 20-year-old Popoola Michael, Daniel Adome, Kayode Thomson, and Taiwo Okiki, all 18, who were accused of being members of ‘Omo Kasari Confraternity’ (‘Children of Caesar’) in the Mushin area of the state.
Cultism requires concerted efforts to eradicate – Police Commissioner
Another group of suspects were arrested on November 9 in connection with cult-related activities in the Ikorodu area of the state.
They include 21-year-old Segun James; Agbelusi Sunday, and Kareem Ishola, both 20; 19-year-old Opeyemi Oderinde; Olasojo Gbolahan, and Ayodele Olasukanmi, both 18, all arrested by a special operational team.
Otubu Samson, and Kayode Agoro, both 17; and 16-year-old Otako Jeremiah were also arrested with the group and accused of being members of Aiye Confraternity.
“Items recovered from the suspects include locally-made guns, live cartridges, axes, cutlasses, charms and some other offensive weapons,” the police chief said.
The Lagos cases are just a tip of the iceberg of happening in other states of the federation in recent time.
In Ogun State, 227 suspected cultists are currently in police net. The state Police Commissioner, Edward Ajogun, said those arrested were part of the 2,735 robbers, kidnappers, rapists and other criminals nabbed between July and December last year.
In Delta State, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, while inaugurating the state security outfit, “Operation Delta Hawk,” said that there was much more work to do to contain criminal tendencies, including cultism.
“We are at a time in our nation where there is a lot of insecurity, even with what the state government and the various security agencies are doing, we still have a lot of challenges.
“In Delta, like other states, there is no doubt that there is a lot of kidnapping, banditry, cultism, worst still is the clashes between herdsmen and farmers.
Also, in Ogun State, no fewer than 20 persons were reportedly killed while several others sustained varying degrees of injuries during cult clashes in some parts of Ijebu-Ode.
A source in Ijebu-Ode was quoted as saying that suspected members of the dreaded Eiye and Aiye confraternities were involved in the clash which subjected residents of the commercial town and its environs to ‘a serious panic mode’ for over two weeks.
A woman and her daughter, who were in a commercial tricycle, were reported shot dead during a clash. Members of the rival cult group were said to have targeted the rider of the tricycle, who belonged to another cult group.
Not too long ago, in Abuja, men of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Command of the Nigeria police said they had arrested 10 suspects over alleged involvement in cultism in Nyanya area.
FCT Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Anjuguri Manzah, a deputy superintendent, said the suspects were arrested following intelligence report “and in furtherance to the command’s fight against cultism and other illicit activities’’.
Manzah said the suspects, who belonged to the Supreme Vikings Confraternity, also known as Aro Bager, were arrested by operatives from Nyanya Division during a meeting.
The PPRO said that two cutlasses, one long hammer, one pinches and one iron bar were recovered from the suspects. He said the suspects would be charged to court after investigation.
According to Oyeyemi, the Divisional Police Officer, Ilaro Divisional Police Headquarters, Olayemi Jacob, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), acting on a tip-off led a team of policemen to the bush and arrested the two with the help of some members of the public last Monday
The News Agency of Nigeria also reports that the Oyo State Command some time ago paraded 40 suspects over alleged cases of kidnapping, murder, robbery and cultism.
State Commissioner of Police, Shina Olukolu, who paraded the suspects at the command’s headquarters, Eleyele, Ibadan, said the suspects, who were arrested on different occasions, were found in possession of items such as knives, live cartridges, cutlasses, locally-made guns, phones, three cars and cash.
Olukolu said one of the suspects, aged 32, murdered his 72-year-old father, Busari Isiaka, on November 11 at Alagbaka area of Ashi in Ibadan.
The CP added, “The suspect, after committing the evil, called his two brothers and narrated the incident to them. His two brothers immediately raced to their father’s house, prepared his corpse and buried him without informing the police in order to conceal the crime perpetrated by their brother. The Ashi divisional police station later got the information and this led to the arrest of the suspects”.
Olukolu, who said that the security architecture of the state was being constantly re-jigged, called on the people to go about their lawful businesses without any fear of molestation.
The situation has become so worrisome that recently, the Enugu State Police Command said it was ‘planning’ to conduct a ‘one-million-man march’ against cultism and related vices in the state capital.
The National Coordinator of Police Campaign Against Cultism and Other Vices, POCACOV, Ebere Amaraizu, a superintendent of police, said the POCACOV secretariat had concluded modalities for the march, adding that it was aimed at deepening the campaign in the minds of the public.
ThisNigeria gathered that POCACOV is an initiative of the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Adamu. It is aimed at saving Nigerian youths from the claws of cultism.
A report said 10,000 people were killed in cult-related violence between 1996 and 2019 in Nigeria. Mr. Ike Onyekwere, the founding chairma, Exam Ethics Marshall International (EENI), an NGO, disclosed this at a news conference on the imperatives of stamping out campus cultism, Exam Practices and Sex-for-Grade Menace in the country.
Punishments
Last Wednesday, 10 men appeared in an Ogudu Magistrates’ Court in Lagos over alleged involvement in cult activities.
The suspects, Olushola Fayode, 35; Daniel Adimorah, 24; Adeyemi Adebayo, 27; Olamilekan Ishola, 25, and Isaiah Obisesan, 28; Adeosun Rilwan, 28; Godwin Adebano, 24; Usman Aliu, 23; Isaac Samuel, 20, and Olamilekan Akinyemi, 28, were charged with conspiracy and membership of an unlawful society called ‘Eiye’ confraternity.
The defendants pleaded not guilty
Mommoh said that the offences contravened the provisions of Sections 42 (a) and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015, which prescribes a jail term of three years for membership of an unlawful group.
The prosecutor asked the court for an adjournment to enable her to study the case file and present witnesses.
The Magistrate, Mrs. O.M. Mogaji, admitted the defendants to bail in the sum of N200,000 each with two sureties in like sum, before adjourning the case until October 13 for substantive hearing.
In Akwa Ibom a 23-year-old student, Emmanuel Thomas, was jailed for five years. He had been found guilty of belonging to the ‘Red Skin Secret Confraternity’.
Thomas was sentenced by Justice Okon Okon of Akwa Ibom State High Court sitting in Uyo, after he confessed that he joined the secret cult in 2019 because of the challenges his mother had with her landlady.
He also reportedly confessed in his extra-judicial statement that he had been initiated into the group in Uyo by one ‘General’, now at large.
In his judgment, Justice Okon held that “by the provision of Section1 (2) of the Cultism, Offensive Weapons and Violent Behaviour Prohibition Law 2004 of Akwa Ibom State, any person who is a member of a cult, whether or not he is in possession of an offensive weapon, is guilty of an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for seven years without an option of fine.”
Lagos-Based Cultists Arrested While Buying Guns In Ogun
Action point
As a flashpoint of cultism, Lagos is moving to control its bite on the citizenry.
After the last November arrests, PPRO Adejobi said the State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, had concluded plans to work closely with the state Ministry of Justice to ensure speedy trials of the suspects as part of the command’s ‘Operation say no to Cultism’ campaign.
The CP said cultism preceded other heinous crimes and social vices, and so, it must be tackled effectively. He urged members of the public to support the fight of the authorities to maintain peace.
According to him, for years, Lagos has struggled with the menace of cultism, especially among youths.
Also, the Lagos State House of Assembly said it would consider amending the state’s Anti-Cultism Law to include also punishing the parents of those convicted of cultism.
Speaking on the rising wave of cultism in Nigeria, a human rights activist, Zik Gbemre, decried the rising waves of youth cultism in Ughelli South Council of Delta State.
He said with the trend of cultism activities in ravaging Nigeria and causing serious crisis and apprehension in communities, it was imperative for stakeholders to do all they could to nip the trend in the bud.
On the causes of cultism, a parent laments: “There is high level of unemployment in Nigeria today. We must first provide employment to teeming graduates who are unemployed. Most of these youths that go into cult activities don’t even know what they go into and the consequences that follow.’’
