A 15-year-old pupil, Idris, has been arrested by the police in Lagos for allegedly belonging to the Aiye Confraternity.
Idris, a Junior Secondary School one pupil at a private school in the Orile area of the state, was paraded along with 56 other suspected cult members at the Lagos State Police Command headquarters in Ikeja on Monday.
PUNCH Metro learnt that the suspects were rounded up on Thursday at Elemoro, in the Ajah area by the police and members of a vigilance group in the community.
The cult had gone inside a bush some distance away from Eleko Beach, Ajah, to perform initiation rites for new members, including Idris, who had tattoos on his chest and hand.
They were about to complete the rites when the operatives swooped on them around 4am.
Two locally-made cut-to-size guns, three live cartridges and 22 expended cartridges were reportedly recovered from them.
Idris, a resident of Arowoyabuna Street, Orile, told our correspondent that an unnamed neighbour had approached him on Wednesday and taken him to a bar to drink.
He said, “A man in my community bought a drink for me. After we finished drinking, he asked me to follow him to Eleko Beach for a party. When we got there, they covered my face and took me inside a bush. They used an object to pierce my thumb and collected some blood.
“As we were about to leave around 4am on Thuursday, I heard gunshots and the police arrested us. I have not been told the name of the cult.”
He said the inscription, ‘Baba Bose,’ tattooed on his chest, was an expression of love for his girlfriend, identified as Bose.
Another suspect, 23-year-old Eze Michael, explained that his friend, one Kelechukwu, lured him into the bush on the pretext that they were going for an event.
The Ebonyi State indigene said,
“Kelechukwu invited me to an event at Eleko Beach. When we got there, he said we would have to wait till late evening. When it was 10pm, he took me inside a bush. I met so many people there. They beat us. They told us to lie down and raise our hands.
“They threatened to shoot us if we did not cooperate. Immediately they cut my thumb, I heard gunshots from the police and everybody started running helter-skelter.
“Some OPC members beat us up. Kelechukwu did not explain anything to me before we got to the bush. But I learnt the group is Aiye Confraternity.”
Adedayo Obabiyi, 25, from Ogun State, said he and his siblings had attended a birthday party at the beach and were returning home when some hoodlums attacked them.
“They collected our phones and ATM cards and blindfolded us. They took us to an unknown place. When we got there, I heard a lot of voices. They pierced our thumbs,” he added.
The state Commissioner of Police, Edgal Imohimi, lamented increasing involvement of youths in cultism.
Emeh Achanga,the CEO of the Miss Petite Nigeria Brand is a lawyer turned blogger. She is very passionate about writing, with several publications and awards to her credit .She is currently working on publishing a collection of short stories which are basically a memoir about her exciting true experiences.
