Operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad are now after a cult-like criminal gang, popularly known as “Rotimi Boys”, operating in Ikotun and environs, in Lagos.
Our correspondent gathered that the group’s illegal activities include the practices of the Black Axe cult. They also allegedly carry out ritual murders, mutilation and rape.
“The most worrisome aspect of their alleged criminal activities has to do with the daylight robbery of people who might have just cashed some huge amount of money from their bank accounts. Their net-worth is over N100million,” a source said.
In Ikotun, the gangsters, who usually operate on motorcycles, are alleged to be fond of using mafialike techniques to carry out armed robbery, inflict bodily harm on their targets, attempt murder, extortion and drug-dealing.
“They are dangerous, always armed, and they move in pairs. Immediately after each successful operation, they assemble at their master’s home, from where they share the loot”, a source said.
“They have distinct marks of initiation on their bodies. They have slangs and other coded languages,” he added.
Inside sources told The Point that the members of the criminal group were only answerable to their boss, popularly known as “Rotimi”.
Indepth investigations revealed that the gangsters usually picked their target randomly, having planted moles inside banking halls to monitor huge withdrawals of money.
“Once a customer withdraws a huge amount of money, the mole inside the bank would signal to the members of the group who would be on the alert outside the bank. The details of their target would have been given so as not to make any mistake,” a source said.
Mr. Joseph Leonard, a resident of Ikotun, Ile Epo area, told our correspondent that the ”Rotimi Boys” had last Thursday attacked two people with bottles and axes, while dispossessing them of their hard-earned property, which included cash that was freshly withdrawn from the nearby bank.
“Barely a week ago, these bad boys pursued their victims around and at the end of the day, policemen attached to the two banks around later found the victims with gashed foreheads and their cash was gone”.
Cult-related activities were traced to some university groups in the early 90s but the decadence soon spread to towns and villages, where jobless individuals and artisans alike are now initiated with a view to perpetrating crime with impunity.
Our correspondent was at the nearby Ikotun Police station to make enquiries about the “Rotimi Boys.”
Police sources disclosed that “Rotimi is a 419er. Everybody in Ikotun knows him. The police know him as a notorious gang-leader; but I wonder why he is allowed freehand to operate.
“In the past six months, his boys have been giving us problems. They told us that the guy is from Ondo State. However, I cannot say for certain whether he uses gun and other dangerous weapons”, a police officer who pleaded anonymity disclosed.
Also speaking with The Point, Pastor Christopher Ileogwu of Christ Mission International said that the presence of SARS operatives around Ikotun banks would now save the situation.
“We learnt that men and officers of the Special Anti- Robbery Squad have been drafted to some strategic places in Ikotun by the no-nonsense Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni. I believe that with this latest action, the nefarious activities of “Rotimi Boys” would be finally constricted. We strongly suspect a criminal connivance between some officers and Rotimi”.
However, spokesperson of the Lagos State Police Command, Superintendent Dolapo Badmos, told The Point that the command would not condone any act of criminality from anybody, individual or group.
Badmos warned that armed robbery or cult related activities were serious crimes that would attract severe punishment.
According to her, “since the SARS operatives are monitoring the place, all we need to do is to support them by giving out useful information that could lead to the arrest of the evil-doers in the society.”
The PPRO ruled out criminal connivance between officers and the cultists, saying that, “No police officer would willingly shield criminals, unless he has another job. It is the responsibility of the police to curb crime, protect lives and property, among others”.
