Operatives of the Anti-Cultism Unit, Lagos State Police Command have arrested Adewale Jacob, who claimed to be the Public Relations Officer of Aiye confraternity in Lagos State.
The self-acclaimed spokesman, who said he was initiated into the Aiye cult in 2017, disclosed that the group has members, not just in Nigeria, but also in foreign countries.
Jacob further disclosed that no rival member gets killed or fights embarked upon without members in diaspora contributing to strategies on how to go about the operation.
He said: “Two months after I joined the group, I was elevated to the rank of the image maker of Aiye in Lagos State as a whole.
“The role of a PRO is to inform members in the state and abroad about meetings and upcoming operations.
“We always inform our members who are abroad and outside Lagos to advice us on steps to take in order to succeed in any operation we want to embark on.
“After informing them, they tell us what to do and how to go about it.
“Other hierarchies in Aiye cult group are chairman, who is the leader.
“The Second-in-Command is called Ogogo.
“The third is Welfare Officer.
The fourth is the Secretary, while the fifth is the PRO.
“After I was confirmed the image maker, I was given an eagle image as a symbol of my authority.
“Whenever I’m in the midst of our members with the Eagle image, I have the authority with me to control our members.”
Jacob added that aside being the image maker of the cult group, he also sells Indian hemp.
He said: “I regret joining the group.
“I don’t know what my fate would be here in police detention because nobody has come to ask after me.
“None of my family members has come to check on me.”
Another suspect, arrested by the Unit, Kehinde Olanrewaju, 16, said he took to Arobaga cult group after his parents broke up.
Olanrewaju said he was initiated when he travelled to Abeokuta, Ogun State for Christmas in 2019.
He claimed to be working for the senior members in the group as errand boy.
The suspect, who has a tattoo on his head and his arms, said: “Since I was initiated, I’ve made up my mind that I won’t travel for Christmas to the village anymore.”
Olanrewaju said when he returned from Abeokuta after he was initiated, he told his elder brother how he was initiated, but was advised to be cautious.
His words: “When I told my elder brother what I went through, he asked me to pray for God’s protection.
“Since then, I have been praying and then I decided to learn aluminium fabrication work.
“My brother relocated from where he was staying to Isiu village, Ikorodu in order to protect me from the cultists.
“It was after my mother left my father that she died.
“Whenever I tell people that I was forced into cultism, they don’t believe me.
“I’m tired of my life because I don’t know where I’m going to end up.
“Nobody asks about me.”
The Unit also arrested Joy Godwin, 15, from Cross River State.
The boy said he belonged to Aiye Cult group.
Godwin said it was when he followed his friend to a birthday party that he was initiated.
On that fateful day, he said he was beaten and a bottle of gin poured on him.
He said: “I was forced to join and since then, I have been avoiding the friend I followed to the birthday party.”
The suspect, who said he works as a vulcaniser, added: “Policemen arrested me on Wednesday moments after I returned from work and stepped out to buy noodles.
“It’s true I’m a member of Aiye cult group.
“My father is aware I’m in the custody of the police.
“I don’t know how he’s going to feel when he hears I’m a member of Aiye cult group.”
Another suspect, Dayo Adeojo, 25, a member of Aiye cult, confessed to have killed a rival member last year with an axe at Adamo area of Ikorodu.
Police recovered a locally made pistol from Adeojo, which he said that he bought for N15,000 from a colleague to defend himself whenever there was a fight in his community.
He said: “Three months after I became a member of Aiye, I was assigned to kill a rival Eiye member.
“A day before the operation, I was given the axe.
“I was shivering and they threatened to kill me if I didn’t carry out the operation.
“I trailed the person for days before I finally cornered and hacked him with the axe.
“Immediately after the operation, I escaped before his colleagues could come after me.
“I was also initiated at a birthday party of a friend.”
Asked how he was arrested, Adeojo said: “I was returning from Bayeku when policemen arrested me and collected my locally made gun.
“I bought the gun to defend myself.
“Since I killed the rival Eiye member, I was always afraid that Eiye members would come after me.
“Every day I pray, asking God for forgiveness for killing my fellow human being.
“But it was not my fault.
“I was forced.”
Another suspect, Tosin Shoremi, a self-confessed member of King of Killer Cult Group, was arrested by the Unit for being in possession of gun and dagger.
Shoremi said: “It was my friend, Ibrahim, that initiated me into the group.
“I don’t want our rival member to kill me that was why I bought the gun for protection.
“It was when I was returning from my village at Adamo in Ikorodu that some policemen arrested and recovered the gun from me.
“I have never killed.”
Also in police custody is 13-year-old Ojuwoyin Suleiman, who was arrested by local vigilante members for being a member of Eiye at Adamo area of Ikorodu.
Suleiman said: “It was frustration that pushed me into cultism.
“It happened after my parents divorced.
“ I’m a member of the Eiye cult.
“Since I joined, I have been unable to pull out.
“I’m afraid of being killed.
“I have not benefited anything from them.
“I steal to pay my dues whenever we have to go for meetings.
“If my mother didn’t leave my father, I might not have joined cultism.
“My mother used to advice me; she tells me to be cautions.
“It was because my parents were no longer together that I got frustrated and angry and went into the streets.
“The streets made me what I am today.
“I will be grateful if I leave the police custody; I’ll denounce my membership of the cult group.”
A 17-year-old Lateef Dauda also insisted that he didn’t join Eiye cult group willingly.
He said that he was forced into the group by a friend.
Dauda was arrested by policemen at Sabo Market area of Ikorodu, where he was working as a bus conductor.
He explained that he lives in the midst of cultists and they were always afraid that he would expose them because he was not a member.
To ensure he keeps a sealed lip, they allegedly forced him to join cultism.
He recounted: “After I was initiated, I left Sabo area to live in another place for fear of being killed whenever there was a rival cult clash.
“The Police arrested me one day when I went to buy food.”
Lateef Taiwo, 22, also has his own story to tell.
He revealed that his boss initiated him into Eiye Cult Group.
The boss, a bus driver, initiated him on the day he was having his baby’s dedication.
Taiwo said: “After the baby’s dedication party, I was about leaving to go home when my boss asked me to wait, that he wanted to give me transport fare.
“While I was waiting, his friend came and ordered me to follow him to a secluded place.
“When we got there, my boss came to join us.
“They brought out gin and poured it on me.
“They asked me to lie flat on the ground, while one of them stepped on me.
“They also brought a substance, which I suspected to be blood, and asked me to drink.
“Why all these were going on, my boss didn’t say anything.
“It was after the initiation that he stood and embraced me.
“He told me that I was now a member of the Eiye Confraternity.
“He warned me never to tell anyone what I went through.
“The following day, I left the area to stay with my elder brother to avoid seeing them.
“I was going to see my sister at Ajegunle when Policemen arrested me.
“The Police found ‘smoke’ in my pocket.
“It was during interrogation I owned up that I was a member of Eiye group.
“I regret working with my boss.”
The operations that led to the arrest of the suspects were headed by a Chief Superintendent of Police, Uduak Udom, who is the head of the Anti-Cultism Unit.
The crack squad arrested the suspects at Ajegunle, Ikorodu, Adamo, Imota and Agbowa, among other places.
—
Follow The Eagle Online Channel on WhatsApp
