…as rampaging rival cult group members attack, rob residents
No fewer than nine persons were killed in Ajegunle, a suburb of Lagos State, as suspected rival cult group members engaged one another in a battle of supremacy.
The violence, which involved the youths from different streets in Ajegunle, including; Moshalasi, Ogungbe, Cemetery, Bale Aiyetoro, Agungun, Opeleye, Ajose, Kehinde, Ojo road, Okoya, Nosamu and Or odu, among others, caused pandemonium in the areas as residents scampered to safety to escape attacks by the marauding suspected cultists.
The cultists, who were mainly youths, were said to have engaged in hunting down and killing members of rival groups and robbing other victims.
People were peeping from key holes as the cult boys tore Chukwuma’s stomach up to the chest and cut out his heart, private part and intestines, and left with his body parts
Many residents of the area were said to have abandoned their homes for safe havens.
A man, simply identified as Musa, was shot in the chest at Cemetery Street, and he died, instantly. Attempts by some suspected cult members to dump Musa’s corpse in a canal located between Layinka in Ajegunle, and Olumokun Street, Amukoko, were resisted by some residents. The deceased’s corpse was later taken to Amukoko Cemetery for burial.
An eyewitness, Saidi Adegbesan said another victim identified as Chukwuma was attacked and butchered by the suspected cultists.
Adegbesan said that the cultists had earlier accused Chukwuma of being an informant to the Layeni Police Station.
His attackers were said to have apprehended him at Moshalasi Street, where they dealt him several machete blows, cut open his stomach and pulled of his heart, intestines and private parts, which they went away with.
Adegbesan added that the deceased was a prominent member of a vigilante group in the area.
“People were peeping from key holes as the cult boys tore Chukwuma’s stomach up to the chest and cut out his heart, private part and intestines, and left with his body parts. They killed him at Moshalasi Street. They also saw another man at Aroworade Street and chopped off his hand with a cutlass, after which they took the one hand away. The man bled and was rushed to the hospital. Another man was shot dead at Cemetery Street, Many were injured,” he said.
A police officer attached to Layeni police station, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, disclosed that nine people had so far been killed by the suspected cultists.
He said seven people were killed within the Layeni Police Division, while two others were killed within the Ajeromi Division. He added that many of the victims were gruesomely murdered.
The officer said the police had arrested many suspects over the killings.
A police source at the Ajeromi Police Station disclosed that six suspects had been arrested over the violence. Adding that the Divisional Police Officer, CSP Sunday Digha, had been on his toes to end the killings by the suspected cultists and restore normalcy to the area.
A female resident, Funmilayo Komolafe, said that many people were killed and many more maimed during the violence.
Komolafe said a man was attacked and slaughtered at a “schooshi” joint in Ago- Hausa Street, where he was found drinking the substance. She said after they killed him, they placed a signpost on his body indicating the cult group that carried out his murder.
The female resident further said another man identified as Amaechi, was shot in the buttocks and six pellets extracted from his body.
She said a native doctor at the Layinka area extracted pellets from the body of many victims of the violence, including Amaechi. She said many innocent residents were also hit by stray bullets during the inter-cult war.
“I don’t know what these children are gaining from bloodshed and cultism. They are robbing people, damaging cars, destroying and looting shops. Go to Moshalasi, Ogungbe and Aroworade streets, among others, you will weep when you see the damage done to people’s vehicles. Over 50 vehicles were affected. What sort of life is that? I heard that they killed about four people. Ajegunle is not safe. I don’t know what is wrong with this society called Nigeria,” she
said.
Another resident, Hakeem Ogundele, said he escaped death by a hair’s breath as he was beaten with the flat blades of machete by the suspected cultists before they dispossessed him of his two handsets and N12, 000 cash at Cemetery market.
He also disclosed that one Yakubu residing at the Agungun area was attacked by the cultists with machetes and left him with serious injuries.
A woman, popularly known as ‘Mama Calabar,’ said the cultists attacked customers drinking local gin locally called ‘paraga’ in her shop. She said immediately she saw them and heard the gun shots, she took to her heels, taking refuge inside the nearest building.
She claimed that the rampaging cultists stole all the local gin they could lay their hands on in the commotion.
A man, Chikaodi Ike, said that the suspected cultists stole his wife’s phone after inflicting machete injury on her.
“My wife was attacked at Cemetery Market, where she had gone to buy foodstuffs. They took away her phones and N600 on her. She returned home bleeding and weeping. I had to rush her to the hospital,” he said.
Ibrahim Kabiru, who lives at Moshalasi, said he had to sneak out with his family to Aiyenero Street, when the hoodlums began to burgle apartments of residents in the area.
“These cult boys were robbing from room to room and house to house. So, I had to move my wife and three children away from that street because Moshalasi is one of the targeted streets. They came to attack other bad boys in our street and were robbing and injuring people. They killed one of our guards here,” Kabiru said.
A spy policeman, Thomas Dixon was attacked at the Sanusi Street area. Dixon said he was going to work, when two of the warring hoodlums accosted
him.
The policeman said his attackers hid machetes inside their trousers. He said immediately he moved closer to them, they drew out the machetes and ordered him to surrender his handset and money. They then injured him on his
forehead.
“As I was going to work today, two suspected criminals waylaid me at Sanusi Street. They brought out their cutlasses hidden inside their trousers and threatened to kill me. They ordered me to surrender my money and handsets or they would kill me. One of them was standing in front of me, brandishing his cutlass while the other was at my back. The hoodlum in front of me was holding me with one hand as he ordered me to cooperate. I surrendered my handset and the N2,590 cash on me. They wanted to collect my wallet in which I kept my identity card and my Automated Teller Machine card. I protested that only my identity card was inside the wallet. One of them suddenly cut me with his cutlass on my forehead and I fell. They left the scene as blood began to gush out from the injury,” Dixon said.
Apart from the policemen from the two divisions battling to curb the menace of hoodlums, military personnel attached to ‘Operation MESA’ were also deployed in the area to restore normalcy.
