There is no let up in the barbaric killings linked
to the Badoo cult group in Lagos
State. After a short-lived reprieve, the killings, which occur mainly in the
Ikorodu area of the state, apparently for rituals, resurfaced towards the end
of 2017. On December 30, the group attacked a family of four in Ibeshe.
Unfortunately, the father died in the attack, while the others were injured. Although
the Lagos State Police Command has stepped up security and made some arrests,
the state should not relent until the evil phenomenon is eradicated.
The modus operandi of the cult has become familiarly
eerie. Their major paraphernalia are odd: grinding stone and pestle. The group
attack victims in their sleep with these objects, and use handkerchiefs to mop
up the blood. Ikorodu residents believe that each blood-soaked handkerchief
sells for N500,000. Some of those arrested by the police confess that they have
been paid various sums of money by their patrons for bringing them such
handkerchiefs.
In some cases, the cult members go around with
welding machines. They use this to cut the burglar proof devices on windows and
gain access to the rooms of their victims. By now, the police should have put
measures in place to detect those going around with welding instruments in the
dead of the night, an odd time for such a business.
To be fair, Edgal Imohimi, the Commissioner of
Police, Lagos State, mobilised his officers into action shortly after the
December 30 incident. This led to the arrest of five suspects. The confessions
of one of them, Chibuzor Igwe, 18, helped in the arrest of a couple, Gift and
Samuel Akaeze; the latter is said to be a welder. Information secured from him
enabled the police to raid the cult’s shrine in Imosan-Ijebu, Ogun State.
There, the police discovered human skulls and fetish objects and arrested the
in-house herbalist, Fatai Adebayo.
In the same vein, the police declared Abayomi Alaka,
a businessman and alleged kingpin of the cult, wanted. Alaka had been arrested
last year, but he was granted bail after the Badoo onslaught subsided. He has
denied the police claim. Thereafter, the state government sealed Alaka’s hotel,
petrol station and event centre, saying his business outfits violated the
state’s environmental laws.
Imohimi’s assignment is complicated by the judicial
system. The Lagos CP says, “The bad news is that out of the seven principal
suspects charged to court in connection with the ritual killings, five of them
have been released from prison. They were granted bail by the court and they
have gone underground.” This legal rigmarole is irreconcilable with the obvious
evil activities of the ritual killers.
The gangsters had murdered a pastor of the Redeemed
Christian Church of God, Victor Kanayo, in November, in Igbogbo (Ikorodu). His
wife and 10-month-old baby escaped with injuries. With a frightening success
rate, the gang has found it easy to attack soft targets. At the height of its
terror, it reportedly murdered 26 residents in 15 attacks in the state in the
12 months to June 2017. Fourteen others were injured. The headline cases
occurred in April 2017 when a family of three was slaughtered at Ibeshe-Tuntun;
and the murder of a couple in Ogijo last June.
In some other incidents, almost all the family
members were wiped out. This was the case with the Agbaje family. The attackers
succeeded in killing the father, mother and two children, with two other
children escaping. For Badoo, the church is a good hunting ground. Vigils
expose churchgoers to Badoo attacks. As a result, the police advised churches
holding vigils to request police presence or stop the vigils altogether.
Members of the public should also be watchful of the operations of the group,
deepen their vigilante operations and utilise the state’s hotlines to alert the
security agencies.
On his assumption of office in 2006, the then
Mexican president, Felipe Calderon, increased the number of security operatives
fighting the country’s drugs cartels from 20,000 to 50,000. In Colombia, a
South American country threatened by the influential Medellin and Cali drugs
cartels, the government reversed its long-standing policy of not extraditing
the drugs lords to face trial in the United States. That U-turn succeeded in
decimating the ranks of the cartels after many of them were jailed in the US.
The policy weakened the cartels as it forced them to rebuild.
This is where our judiciary, the Inspector-General
of Police, Ibrahim Idris, Imohimi and Governor Akinwunmi Ambode should prove
their mettle. Idris should deploy an increased number of special intelligence
squads, with officers well attuned to local nuances in the lead, to infiltrate
the Badoo ranks. Something drastic needs to be done.
Granting bail to these notorious cultists enables
them to entrench their bestiality. The judiciary should therefore rethink its
strict legalism in granting bail to Badoo suspects. When they get such reprieve, they disappear or jump bail. All
those brought to court should, however, be properly and speedily prosecuted.
With aid and funding from the Lagos State Security
Trust Fund, Ambode should equip officers of the state police command with
hi-tech gadgets to perform their duties in Ikorodu. By now, Lagos ought to be
operating a 24-hour economy, but the high rate of crime prevents it from coming
to fruition. No part of Lagos should be ceded to criminal gangs and ritual
killers. The governor and the security agencies should tap into the welter of
information that can be provided by traditional and local authorities to flush
out the ritual killers.
