Ogun: Police parade 39 suspected cultists, one armed robbery suspect
Bankole Taiwo, Abeokuta
39 hoodlums out of the 40 suspects paraded on Tuesday by the Ogun State Command of the Nigeria Police Force were confirmed to be members of various secret cult groups, particularly the Eiye Confraternity that have been terrorising the entire state in recent times.
The 40th suspect, who was identified as Ayinde Musibau was a member of an armed robbery syndicate that was arrested following a failed robbery operation at a village in the neighbourhood of Ifo township of Ifo Local Government Area of the state where his gang macheted a commercial motorcyclist before fleeing the area.
Parading the suspects yesterday at the command’s headquarters in Eleweran, Abeokuta, the state capital, the Commissioner of Police, Olanrewaju Oladimeji, said arrest of the hoodlums was the continuation of the Command’s clampdown on cultists, who have been causing mayhem in different parts of the state.
With a specific mention of Sagamu township in the Ogun East Senatorial district, Olanrewaju explained that his Command resolved to taking the battle against cultism in Ogun to the doorsteps of the “known various cultists that have been unleashing reigns of terror as a result of supremacy battles amongst them.”
“Having identified their various hideouts in Sagamu, Odogbolu, Ode – Lemo and some other areas, the Anti – Cultism team in collaboration with other tactical teams and divisional police operatives launched a very serious offensive operation against them and the result is what we are seeing today.”
The Police Commissioner however, disclosed that not less than 24 suspected secret cult members earlier arrested across the state have been charged to court within the past one week.
While warning parents and guardians to prevail on their wards on the needs to desist from engaging in acts capable of undermining the security of the state, Olanrewaju however, emphatically declared that operatives of his Command are determined to rid the state of cultism and other social vices “as an organisation saddled with the responsibility of securing lives and properties.”
Items recovered from the hoodlums included: locally made guns, axes, double barrelled guns, bags of weeds suspected to be Indian Hemp, live cartridges, dagger and cutlasses among other locally manufactured weapons.
