By Mary BASSEY, Staff Investigator, Lagos.
IT was end of the road for two dreaded and very notorious capons of both the Neo Black Movement aka Aiye Black Axe and Eye confraternities in Lagos recently as Police detectives attached to the ant-cultism unit had them rounded up in their games. Whereas, the Aiye Black Axe capon identified as Dare Oluwadamilare said to have sent so many persons to their early graves in Oworonshoki before fleeing to Ghana in 2014 was arrested last week in a hideout in Oworonshoki, a suburb in Lagos where reports say to hold sway, his Eye capon counterpart also known as Joseph Ashubi was arrested after he led members of his cult group to launch an attack on a hapless woman in her shop somewhere in Ikorodu, an outskirt of Lagos for yet to be ascertained reason. And while investigation was yet o be concluded on the arrest of the two notorious cultists, operatives attached to Ilupeju Police Division again intercepted some students cultists most of them teenagers who were on a hit mission to another school in Mushin. The Commissioner of Police CP Imohimi Edgal who paraded the suspects before newsmen assured that the Police Command was doing everything within its capacity to ensure that cultism no longer had a root in the state. The Police boss also warned that he would henceforth set his after parents whose underage wards were arrested for cultism adding that it was wrong for parents not to keep an eye on the activities of their children in and after schools. In a written statement read before anxious journalists, CP Edgal said, “The command in keeping with its promise to ensure that cultism does not take any root in Lagos state, have been working with the locales, we have been partnering with them and creditable information which we have been converting to intelligence have been coming forward. In Lagos now, our focus is to ensure that we do not have un-Policed area, all un-policed areas, I have ordered systematic raids of such areas to ensure that they are not used as hideouts for cultism and in the process we have been achieving a lot of successes. On April 17, 2018, at 11.30hrs the officer in charge of anti-cultism received credible Intel from Nigerians that a wanted dreaded cultist and leader of Aiye Black Axe confraternities who has been terrorizing Oworonshoki axis of the state named Damilare Dare aka NARRO aged 28 years based on the information, my went after the suspect and he was thereafter arrested. He is currently assisting the Police with a view to rounding up other fleeing members of his gang. The arrest of this suspect is of particular importance to the Command because he heads the dreaded Aiye Black Axe confraternity that holds sway around Oworonshoki axis; so his arrest of course, will put a halt to cult activities in that area. But speaking to CrimeWorld, the suspect though admitted being a member of the Aiye Black Axe confraternity denied any wrong doing in the area adding that he left the country in 2011 after the demise of his mother and came back in 2016 saying, “I am not denying membership of Aiye, but I have never killed anybody. I left this country in 2011 for Ghana when my mother died; there, I met other prominent members of my cult and they are well placed in that country, I mean they are responsible people who have made money. When I came back to Nigeria in 2016, I got married and as I speak, I am a father. It was when I went to drop my daughter in school that the Police came after me and said I was wanted in their station. As a law abiding Nigerian, I followed them quietly to their station only for them to say that I am a wanted cultist who has killed so many persons. I challenge anybody to come up to confront me that I killed his or her relations.”
Continuing, CP Edgal said, “Furthermore, on April 24, 2018, at about 9.20hrs, the DPO Ilupeju and his men arrested four male suspects three of who are students of Aturase Senior Secondary School, Suru-lere while the other is a student of Beech Freeman secondary school also in Suru-lere. The fifth suspect, Mayowa Rauf Oguntoye is not a student he is the alleged leader and sponsor of the group. He was arrested by men of the anti- cultism unit after the suspects mentioned him as their sponsor and provider of their weapons. The suspects names as follows; Femi Awoniyi 17, Dauda Sodiq 15, Timileyin Balogun 17, Ajala Afeez 13, Mayowa Rauf Oguntoye 18. What is worrisome about this arrest is that most of the suspects are underage, this goes to show the importance of what I have been preaching; that parents, guardians, care givers and School authorities must pay particular attention to the activities of their children, their students and wards in and out of home and school. It is not enough to send a child to school, the conduct of the students, the association groups they keep in school and outside school must be monitored. Parents ate losing grip of their children because they are no longer paying attention to details. Children come back from school anytime they like, they associate with known hardened criminals within the community and parent keep quite. So let me use this platform to call on parents again that they have parental role to play in the upbringing of their children and it is a constitutional duty. Henceforth any underage child caught for cultism in Lagos, the parents will arrested by the Police for questioning. Let that warning sinks to parent of underage so that they will know that we are taking this issue very seriously. Of course, the underage students intercepted were all on their way to carry out a hit assignment. Upon interrogation they confessed that they were on their way to attack a rival cult group at Eko Boys’ High School Mushin. The suspects are currently having a session with the gender unit of the command. Recovered from them are five very sharp knives and some cutlasses. In a similar vein, we have a case of wounding and arrest of cultists: On April 16, 2018, a group of Eye cultists attacked and wounded one Mr. Wale Ajonri of Ikuwen Ikorodu, Lagos. The cultist led by one Joseph Ashibu, attacked and inflicted sever wounds on the victims right hand base on the complaints, a manhunt was launched by the command’s operatives attached to the RAIDER section of the SCID, based on this, the following suspects were arrested. They are Jackie Onigwe, Ezekwe Ibrahim Kingsley and Ayodele Ayodeji Abiodun. Of course, the victim learnt that his wife was being assaulted in her shop in Okorodu and rushed to the scene and the suspect attacked and wounded him grievously. All the suspect will be charged to court as we will not tolerate any form of hooliganism in Lagos.”
WEEPING: Joseph Ashibu, Eye capon weeping during parade Friday in Lagos…