The Lagos State Police Command has arrested 105 suspected cultists that will face the new state anti-cultism law. The law stipulates 21 years imprisonment if found guilty.
They were among thousands of suspected criminals arrested by the command between January and mid-March. The state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu on March 15, signed the bill for the Prohibition of Unlawful Societies and Cultism, 2021, into law, approving a 21-year jail term for convicted cultists in the state.
Earlier in February, the Lagos State House of Assembly passed the anti-cultism bill, which stipulates a 15-year jail term for anyone found guilty of abetting cultists and willfully allowing their properties to be used as meeting points by cultists.
The new anti-cultism law repeals the old Cultism (Prohibition) Law of 2007 (now Cap. C18, Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2015) and provides for more punitive measures. It also makes its application all-encompassing and applicable to the general public, as against the application of the previous law restricted to students of tertiary institutions.
Sanwo-Olu said the state had suffered the negative effects of unlawful societies and cultism, stressing that the new law sought to make parents more responsible and show more interest in the upbringing of their children and wards to ensure that they do not become a burden to the society.
Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Hakeem Odumosu, who paraded the suspects said, “234 suspected armed robbers, 343 suspected cultists, and 91 suspected murderers were arrested within the period under review. ”
The CP said out of the 343, 105 will be the first to face the new anti cultism law. Odumosu warned parents to advise their children to steer clear of cultism as it was no more business as usual: I understand that some parents don’t monitor the activities of their children, but it was time they start doing so as the law must be enforced and anyone arrested will be prosecuted in line with the law of the land”.
