7th September, 2018
Dedeigbo Ayodeji
What could have passed as an ordinary initiation ceremony into a newly formed secret confraternity named “The New Black Movement of Africa”, a breakaway faction of the Aiye cult group, turned sour, on Thursday, at about 10pm when one of the recruits who couldn’t endure the torture and other initiation rites, bolted and ran to his mother’s house at Jakande estate, Ajah, Lagos.
Miffed by the apparent show of cowardice by the intending recruit and for fear of exposing them to the police, the group chased him to his mother’s residence and began to beat up everybody in sight, at same time, robbing residents of the estate who were woken up by their noise.
Unfortunately for the group, the mother of the runaway boy, sneaked out of the house and placed a distress call to the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Ilasan division, CSP Onyinye Onwuamaegbu who led a contingent of policemen to the estate and arrested 11 members of the group, all males.
Those arrested were identified as Godwin Victor, Benjamin Daniel, Saviour Anioffiong, Lawal Ibrahim, Shola Odekunle, Sodiq Olawuyi, Segun Fagbohun, Bashiru Lawal, Chinedu Francis, Wahab Adams and Ifarinde Adeniyi.
The police team recovered the following items from the suspects: one locally made shotgun, four live cartridges, three cutlasses, one sledge hammer, 10 horse whips and assorted charms.
In a related development, two notorious cultists, Rasheed Yusuf aka Radical and Abel Okwo, were arrested during a supremacy battle between the Aiye and Eiye confraternities at Akerele street, Oworonshoki.
Meanwhile, the said Abel Okwo was charged to court two months ago by the police for cult related offences only to come back to attack residents again.
The Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, Edgal Imohimi, vows that the Command will not relent in its efforts at ridding the state of members of these unlawful societies.
He therefore calls on parents to hold heart to heart talks with their children, male and female alike, on the evil consequences of belonging to cult groups. He thanks Lagosians for always providing the Command with information about the activities of these outlaws and solicits for more cooperation.