A minor who was conscripted into the perilous street life in the South-West zone of Nigeria has related his story to the press in the wake of being captured by the long arm of the law.
Remaining among forty different suspects captured over different wrongdoings going from theft, rape, pantomime and cultism, at the Lagos State Police command, Ikeja , was an under-matured kid whose appearance struck this columnist. Based on his delicate edge to his malnourished looks, combined with an appearance of dread on his light cleaned confront, nothing would have passed him for any of the offenses recorded against him.
Be that as it may, amid a cooperation with Wrongdoing Watchman, 16-year-old Babajide Akiola, as he later distinguished him, affirmed that facial looks could be misleading, after his permission to having a place with a feared cult bunch that has been threatening Satellite Town, in Amuwo Odofin local government area of Lagos.
He additionally opened a container of worms on exercises of individuals from different faction bunches in the area. Most startling was the disclosure that kids as youthful as ten years of age are started into the different cults bunches in Satellite Town. Incidentally, Satellite Town was formed by the Lagos State government in mid 1960 to help low pay workers possess their own homes, with a portion of the zones allotted to oil specialists and private purchasers .
Along the line, illicit structures were worked in the region, which tragically have turned the territory which was once known to be a bequest into a ghetto, with the common exercises of cultists holding influence. In this communication with Akiola, a secondary school certificate holder, he uncovered that , sprimary school pupils and secondary school students , including artisans in the area were forced into cultism. Attempt by anyone approached to put up resistance according to him, meant the out right relocation of the child’s parent from the area.
He additionally uncovered that youngsters in the vicinity of 10 and 13 years who were started into real confraternity gatherings, for example, Bolt Baga prevalently known as Bolt, were sent as spies on their adversaries. The kids as accumulated were likewise sent to study places like the gigantic Naval force sleeping quarters before their "lords" would strike.
How I was constrained into Eiye confraternity
Giving an occasion with his case, he uncovered that he was moved toward appropriate from the age of 10 to join the Eiye confraternity gathering. As indicated by him "When the weight was excessively, I had no way out than to give in . My dad was an okada rider (motorcyclist). He was never at home. There was nobody I could approach when the weight to join Eiye was much on me . Regardless of the possibility that I had moved toward my dad, he would not have done anything in light of the fact that everybody fears the cult folks. He would be compelled to pack out of the area and he didn't have the budgetary quality to do as such.
In one of the events, one of them, Samuel grabbed my telephone and my shoe. I went home barefooted. As though that was insufficient, I was pounded on almost to death by individuals from the cult gathering, for conferring no offense. In the long run I joined Eiye confraternity in 2013, soon after I completed my secondary school.
Initiation
After my secondary school education , my father said I should go and work as an apprentice under a vulcanizer. On the day of the initiation, I was taken to a lonely area around waterside,where I was blindfolded. Thereafter, they beat me and poured alcohol in my eyes. My position in the group is called ‘Tender’ . This is the least position. My job is to spy on rival group members, particularly during fight and give their location to our members before they would strike. At first, no one knew I was a cultist because I was not moving with the known members. But later, my boss got to know and dismissed me”.
Graduated to robbery
Along the line, I lost my father. By the way , my mother was separated from my late dad. She abandoned me and my two siblings with my father. When my father died, I travelled to the village in Ondo state to see my mother but she never welcomed me as a mother would welcome a child she had not seen for long. Rather, she called me names and sent me away, saying it was impossible for me to stay with her because she had remarried
Thereafter, I went to my grandmother who told me to join my two other siblings with her to farm. But I refused because of the hardship there. She gave me N3000 to rent an apartment in Lagos . When I returned to Lagos, I went to stay with a friend who is also member of same cult.
Most robbery cases in Satellite Town and its environs were carried out by cultists. I only participated in the morning raids ,where those leaving for their respective business places are attacked and dispossessed of their cash, phones and other valuables. At the end of each operation, I usually got between N1500 and N3000. I have never handled a gun because I am only a ‘Tender’ .
Killings enhance promotion
Akiola , further disclosed that series of fight in the area were caused by rival cultists. He gave names of some of two major volatile cult groups in the area as
Eiye and Arrow .
“We usually had problems with the Arrow boys, over supremacy . So many persons have died during such clashes in both camps.
Our hit men are refereed to as flyers and Adaba . To graduate from the position of ‘Tender’ to ‘Flyer’ or ‘Adaba’ , it requires human blood. Anyone that can kill three persons at a go during fight with rival cult groups automatically becomes a ‘flyer ‘ or an ‘Adaba’. But I don’t have the mind to kill. The day I was tempted to ask what else can be done to graduate to the next level was when I saw a 10 year-old boy who was already an ‘Adaba ‘ . He came to where I was standing with other members and cleared me off from the ground simply because I did not pay him homage . He ordered me to lie flat and used my back as a leg rest. That was to show me that he was senior to me in rank”.Asked what the name of the 10 year-old boy was, he said he never dared to ask him.
Continuing he said “I was told that the alternative way to rise to the next level was to undergo another round of initiation which involved payment of N15,000. Aside that , I was told that a herbalist would be invited , who would mix cassava flakes otherwise known as garri with rice and would ask me to sort out the rice like a bird. Thereafter, I would be taken to Ibasa, a river bank where the real initiation which include severe beating would be done. I was told that several persons did not pass that stage as they died in the process and their bodies thrown inside the river.
I decided to remain in my position as a ‘Tender ‘ because I didn’t have N15,000 to pay and I was also not ready for another round of beating”. He revealed that areas prone to cult activities included Tambolo village, Ibasa, across the river, Bale, Ijegun, Egba, waterside, Fire Service around barracks,among other places.
Remaining among forty different suspects captured over different wrongdoings going from theft, rape, pantomime and cultism, at the Lagos State Police command, Ikeja , was an under-matured kid whose appearance struck this columnist. Based on his delicate edge to his malnourished looks, combined with an appearance of dread on his light cleaned confront, nothing would have passed him for any of the offenses recorded against him.
Be that as it may, amid a cooperation with Wrongdoing Watchman, 16-year-old Babajide Akiola, as he later distinguished him, affirmed that facial looks could be misleading, after his permission to having a place with a feared cult bunch that has been threatening Satellite Town, in Amuwo Odofin local government area of Lagos.
He additionally opened a container of worms on exercises of individuals from different faction bunches in the area. Most startling was the disclosure that kids as youthful as ten years of age are started into the different cults bunches in Satellite Town. Incidentally, Satellite Town was formed by the Lagos State government in mid 1960 to help low pay workers possess their own homes, with a portion of the zones allotted to oil specialists and private purchasers .
Along the line, illicit structures were worked in the region, which tragically have turned the territory which was once known to be a bequest into a ghetto, with the common exercises of cultists holding influence. In this communication with Akiola, a secondary school certificate holder, he uncovered that , sprimary school pupils and secondary school students , including artisans in the area were forced into cultism. Attempt by anyone approached to put up resistance according to him, meant the out right relocation of the child’s parent from the area.
He additionally uncovered that youngsters in the vicinity of 10 and 13 years who were started into real confraternity gatherings, for example, Bolt Baga prevalently known as Bolt, were sent as spies on their adversaries. The kids as accumulated were likewise sent to study places like the gigantic Naval force sleeping quarters before their "lords" would strike.
How I was constrained into Eiye confraternity
Giving an occasion with his case, he uncovered that he was moved toward appropriate from the age of 10 to join the Eiye confraternity gathering. As indicated by him "When the weight was excessively, I had no way out than to give in . My dad was an okada rider (motorcyclist). He was never at home. There was nobody I could approach when the weight to join Eiye was much on me . Regardless of the possibility that I had moved toward my dad, he would not have done anything in light of the fact that everybody fears the cult folks. He would be compelled to pack out of the area and he didn't have the budgetary quality to do as such.
In one of the events, one of them, Samuel grabbed my telephone and my shoe. I went home barefooted. As though that was insufficient, I was pounded on almost to death by individuals from the cult gathering, for conferring no offense. In the long run I joined Eiye confraternity in 2013, soon after I completed my secondary school.
Initiation
After my secondary school education , my father said I should go and work as an apprentice under a vulcanizer. On the day of the initiation, I was taken to a lonely area around waterside,where I was blindfolded. Thereafter, they beat me and poured alcohol in my eyes. My position in the group is called ‘Tender’ . This is the least position. My job is to spy on rival group members, particularly during fight and give their location to our members before they would strike. At first, no one knew I was a cultist because I was not moving with the known members. But later, my boss got to know and dismissed me”.
Graduated to robbery
Along the line, I lost my father. By the way , my mother was separated from my late dad. She abandoned me and my two siblings with my father. When my father died, I travelled to the village in Ondo state to see my mother but she never welcomed me as a mother would welcome a child she had not seen for long. Rather, she called me names and sent me away, saying it was impossible for me to stay with her because she had remarried
Thereafter, I went to my grandmother who told me to join my two other siblings with her to farm. But I refused because of the hardship there. She gave me N3000 to rent an apartment in Lagos . When I returned to Lagos, I went to stay with a friend who is also member of same cult.
Most robbery cases in Satellite Town and its environs were carried out by cultists. I only participated in the morning raids ,where those leaving for their respective business places are attacked and dispossessed of their cash, phones and other valuables. At the end of each operation, I usually got between N1500 and N3000. I have never handled a gun because I am only a ‘Tender’ .
Killings enhance promotion
Akiola , further disclosed that series of fight in the area were caused by rival cultists. He gave names of some of two major volatile cult groups in the area as
Eiye and Arrow .
“We usually had problems with the Arrow boys, over supremacy . So many persons have died during such clashes in both camps.
Our hit men are refereed to as flyers and Adaba . To graduate from the position of ‘Tender’ to ‘Flyer’ or ‘Adaba’ , it requires human blood. Anyone that can kill three persons at a go during fight with rival cult groups automatically becomes a ‘flyer ‘ or an ‘Adaba’. But I don’t have the mind to kill. The day I was tempted to ask what else can be done to graduate to the next level was when I saw a 10 year-old boy who was already an ‘Adaba ‘ . He came to where I was standing with other members and cleared me off from the ground simply because I did not pay him homage . He ordered me to lie flat and used my back as a leg rest. That was to show me that he was senior to me in rank”.Asked what the name of the 10 year-old boy was, he said he never dared to ask him.
Continuing he said “I was told that the alternative way to rise to the next level was to undergo another round of initiation which involved payment of N15,000. Aside that , I was told that a herbalist would be invited , who would mix cassava flakes otherwise known as garri with rice and would ask me to sort out the rice like a bird. Thereafter, I would be taken to Ibasa, a river bank where the real initiation which include severe beating would be done. I was told that several persons did not pass that stage as they died in the process and their bodies thrown inside the river.
I decided to remain in my position as a ‘Tender ‘ because I didn’t have N15,000 to pay and I was also not ready for another round of beating”. He revealed that areas prone to cult activities included Tambolo village, Ibasa, across the river, Bale, Ijegun, Egba, waterside, Fire Service around barracks,among other places.
Captured
Akiola further stated that members of his confraternity group usually attended parties whether invited or not, adding that on their way back, they would accost unsuspecting persons who were going to their respective places of work. Luck however ran against them on December 29, 2015 , following the arrest of four suspected members, while operating at Chemist bus-stop.
Akiola said " Bolaji was with weere (firearm ) on that day. He utilized it to startle our casualties. However, we didn't realize that policemen were around. I lament joining a confraternity group.
Truth be told, I have a craving to die now on the grounds that I am not ready to go to prison . On the off chance that I am let free, I will come back to my amazing mother in the village and join my kin in cultivating farms. Crime Guard gathered that a few pioneers of the cult bunches were slaughtered by policemen amid shoot-out while in operation.
The suspects, as per the Commissioner of Police, Mr Fatai Owoseni would be charged to court.
Credit- Vanguard News
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