Eleven members of a newly formed ‘ The New Black Movement of Africa” were at the early hours of today arrested while conducting initiation ceremony on members.
Trouble started for the group when a newly recruited member who could not bear the torture during the initiation process fled the venue.
Angered by the action of the fleeing member and coupled with the fear that the recruit might reveal their identities to the police, the gang members stormed the boy’s mother’s house at Jakande estate, Ajah with dangerous weapons.
Police said that to punish the lily-livered runaway boy, the cult members started unleashing mayhem on the residents; during the attack, the gangs robbed residents of valuables and smashing properties in the process.
It was gathered that police in Ajah quickly mobilized when they got wind of the attack and arrested eleven suspected members.
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.
Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Chike Oti, who confirmed the attack said that but for the timely intervention of the police the incident could have been bloody.
Oti, said that the activities of the gang could have passed as an ordinary initiation ceremony into the newly formed secret confraternity.
He said that members of the Black Movement of Africa Were breakaway faction of the AIYE cult group.
He said that the initiation ceremony turned sour, at about 1 am, when one of the recruits who couldn’t endure the torture and other initiation rites he was subjected, bolted for his dear life and ran to his mother’s house at Jakande estate, Ajah Lagos.
He said that: “Miffed by the apparent show of cowardice by the intending recruit and the fact that he may give them up to the police, the group chased him to his mother’s residence and began to beat up everybody on 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 eleven members of the group, all males; namely,
“The police team recovered the following items from the suspects, one locally made shotgun, four live cartridges, three cutlasses, one sledgehammer, ten horsewhips, 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 Command for cult-related offenses only to come back to terrorize the town the more.
The Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, CP Edgal Imohimi, who also confirmed the incident vowed that the Command will not relent in its efforts at ridding the state of members of these unlawful societies.
He, therefore, called on parents to hold heart the o heart talks with their children, male and female alike, about 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.
