Lagos cult gangs kill 80 in six months

Category: Lagos News


Samson Folarin writes that cult groups have killed no fewer than 80 persons in Lagos from January to June 2015.No fewer than 80 people have been killed in Lagos State by cult groups between January and June, 2015.

A senior police officer at the Lagos State Police Command gave SUNDAY PUNCH this statistic.

Out of these 80 cases, The PUNCH had reported 65. The senior police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity said the figure could be higher than 80 because not all cases were reported to the police.

He said, “We have had so many cult killings within the past six months. Most of the cases involved former university students who left school and decided to carry on with their cult related activities after school in their areas.

“The number of cases reported cannot be less than 80, and that is leaving out the number of unreported cases.”

SUNDAY PUNCH investigations showed that in January alone, no fewer than 16 people were killed in cult-related circumstances. In February, 17 people were murdered while in March no fewer than four people were murdered by cultists. In April, eight people were killed, seven in May and 13 in June.

Most of these murders took place in Ikorodu, Mushin, Somolu, Onipanu, Bariga, Ketu and Igando.

One of the victims was Debo Uturu, a 25-year-old computer engineer turned tricycle driver. Uturu was killed on Friday, May 15 while on a visit to his mother on Lawani Street, Mushin. Some men numbering about five got entrance into the Uturus’ residence by breaking the fence of an adjoining building.

Having succeeded in entering, the men found Uturu as he approached his mother’s room from where he had gone to buy a sachet of water for a dinner of rice prepared by his sister.

They opened fire on him.

Wounded, Uturu crawled and begged for his life; but he was held down by the men who descended on him with machete blows until he breathed his last.

Barely two months after Uturu was killed, another resident of Lawani Street, Sodiq Shittu, whose wife was six months pregnant, had life snuffed out of him in broad daylight by the same group of cult members.

This time, the men broke his skull open with a hammer and smashed his face with stone. Shittu died immediately, while his remains were wheeled to a street corner for all to see.

Shittu’s death brought the number of those killed on Lawani alone to three, as a truck loader, Gbenga, had been shot dead on the same street earlier in March.

Killings of this nature have become common sight to residents on this street, and indeed the whole of Mushin area, which has become notorious for all kinds of cult killings.

Recently in the same area, a 32-year-old man simply identified as Tunde had his head severed from his body and kicked around in a soccer match on the street.

In June, Lagos Island was thrown into mourning when the news filtered in that five of the residents returning from a naming ceremony in the Ajah area of the state were ambushed and killed by some cult members.

The killer gang opened fire on the bus conveying the victims and some other people from the venue of the ceremony and killed Ganiyu Lawal, aka Ebe; Idris Kolapo; Samsudeen Osoja, aka Songa; Rafiu, aka Ralph; and Ladi.

Osoja, in particular, was decapitated and had his head taken away, for reportedly showing disrespect to the leader of a rival cult group.

Similarly, the year for many residents of Ijora Bardia, in the Apapa Iganmu area of Lagos State started on a sad note.

On January 12, around 10am, gang members numbering about 50 invaded Akoshile junction and engaged one another in a gun battle.

By the time the din of gunfire died down and smoke cleared, no fewer than 17 people, including passersby had been hit and five killed.

The casualties were identified as Ramon Oladejo, Lateef Abdullahi, Yusuf, Rasheed and Alausa.

Oladejo, a father of four, was on his way to work when he was caught in the cross fire from the shootout.

The spate of cult fights and killings have since increased in the former somnolent communities of the Ikorodu area of Lagos State.

In June, 57-year-old Mrs. Osayemi Victoria and one-year-old Opeyemi, her grandchild, were killed in a cross fire between rival cult groups along Ishawo Road, Ikorodu.

Earlier in May, two men, Ayodele Adefiwaju, and Ogunsanya Lateef, were stabbed to death in Odogunyan part of the community during another cult fight.

In June a leader of a gang in Bariga, Godwin Victor, was killed by members of his own group. His sin: Tired of constant fighting, he negotiated peace with a rival gang.

Also, in May, 22-year-old Sulaiman Musbau, and one Rilwan, aka Chaka were killed in the Somolu area of Lagos for reportedly changing loyalty to a rival group.

Earlier, the leader of the Apapa boys, in the Ebute Meta area of the state, Waheed Yusuf, aka Skippo, was shot dead on New Year’s Eve.

After his death, one Christmas, who abandoned the gang, was abducted and his body decapitated. The police recovered his trunk in Surulere, while the head was found in Ebute-Meta.

A community leader, Musbau Agbodemu, who had also been attacked and stabbed by cult members in the area, said eight more people had been killed since Christmas’ death in the area.

They included that of a 23-year-old student of Business Administration, Olubunmi Elusakin in February. He was shot dead at a bar while an unknown youth was shot dead at the varsity’s amphitheatre in March.The University of Lagos, Akoka, though a citadel of knowledge, has had its own share. In the past six months, it recorded no fewer than two cult-related killings.

The senior police officer who spoke with our correspondent said not all the cult members were former students.

He said, “Some of them are members of motor park unions who think they can fight for the right of their members by joining the groups.”

A security expert, Dr. Ona Ekhomu, explained that cultism is caused by various factors among which are unemployment, lack of parental training and breakdown of societal values.

He said the scourge was on the rise in Lagos State due to turf battles between cult groups who always seek to avenge the death of their members in the hand of rival gangs.

He said, “Different studies conducted have shown that cultism is normally a problem of young people, who have a lot of energy and want to explore.

“The youth population go into it because they are not well engaged; for others, it’s about peer pressure and acceptance. It is also caused by poor parental supervision and breakdown in social values.

“The spike in casualty in Lagos cult fights is caused by what we call turf wars. This is when some cult members encroach on other’s area or space and those guys will want to fight back and where there is incidence of violence and one cult kills another, there is vendetta or the desire to revenge against the other group. We also don’t have well organised police task forces and intelligence task forces.”

Ekhomu, who is the President of the Association of Industrial Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria, warned that if cultism was not quickly addressed, it could aggravate the problem of insecurity in the country.

He said cult groups usually form kidnap and robbery gangs because of the bond they share.

The security expert urged the police and other stakeholders to create amenities and recreational centres that would help youths channel their exuberance toward productive ventures.

A legal practitioner, Spurgeon Ataene, said prosecuting cases of death involving cultists had been difficult because politicians were involved.

He said, “We should not shy away from the fact that most of those in government were cult members when they were in the higher institution and they had godfathers.

“So, when they left the tertiary institution, these godfathers became their business partners and political allies, making it difficult to tackle cultism.

“These people are still sponsoring cultism in the universities with a view to using them to orchestrate their political plans.

“And that is why when cultists kill, you see police being disturbed with calls from government officials, in order to get the culprits off the hook.”

The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Kenneth Nwosu, told our correspondent that the police was doing its best to curb the menace of cultists in the state.

Nwosu said, “The command has never relented in its resolve to curb the menace of cultism in our communities. The crackdown on their activities is still ongoing. It is progressively yielding results as quite an appreciable number of arrests have been made in a bid to curb the menace.”

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