I renounced cultism because of my kids, grand kids

Mr Owolabi Oluwasegun, 22, has openly confessed to have renounced his membership of the Eiye confraternity because he wanted to stay alive for his children and grandchildren to know him.

Oluwasegun is among 130 people, who renounced their membership at the Badagry Local Government area of Lagos State, yesterday. The young men did not only renounce their membership of different cult groups, they also surrendered their guns.

His words: “I don't want to die prematurely. I want to live long, so that my children and grandchildren will grow to know me.”

According to Oluwasegun, he was force to join the cult group when he was in school, but now that he is married, he wanted more out of life than to die young.

He said: "When I was still a member of the group, before I renounced my membership, I didn’t have freedom. But now that I have left the group, I can walk freely from one place to another. When I was a member, I was always afraid of being killed by the rival group. Now I can sleep in my house and play with my children without fear of being hunted or killed.”

According to him, nobody forced him to renounce his membership. “I decided to leave willingly, because I realised that I and my rivals are all from Badagry. There is no need for us to be killing ourselves. I also believe we can be productive to our community.”

Mr. Babalola Oladipupo, who spoke on behalf of other cultists said: “We admitted cultism has eaten deep into us, but now we have been liberated from drowning. In the past, our political leaders always took advantage of our violent nature for their own selfish gains; they leave us to die. Fortunately, we have educated, qualified and brilliant people among us. We’re ready to work in Badagry council if given the opportunity. We also want the commissioner of Police to know that some of us will make a good cop, given the opportunity to serve in Nigeria Police Force."

The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Edgal Imohimi, said that those who wanted to enlist into the Nigerian Police Force should fill the form online and bring their names to him for assistant.

The CP said, when some boys and girls renounced and surrendered their arms in Ikorodu he also urged other communities in the State to emulate their bold steps.

The CP said: "We have been able to address the cult issue by making strong use of community policing not only with religious or traditional rulers, but also with local government to talk to youths in different community to drop cultism and surrender their arms. Cultism is the biggest recurring problem in Lagos. But we’re making progress. This is a big problem intertwine with drug abuse even to the ridiculous extent of taking it to primary schools and recruiting children into cultism."

Imohimi urged everyone to be more vigilant and collective in the campaign against cultism. He suggested that schools should document entry and exit in their schools to know the movement of their students.

Imohimi added: “The problem of cultism has left our shores. Young Nigerian boys and girls who travelled to India and Malaysia to either study or do business are forming cult groups over there and killing themselves. How long are we as parents, leaders, clerics going to watch this happen? Therefore, I called on various local governments, communities, cleric and other relevant bodies across the states as a matter of urgency to declare state of emergency in the fight against cultism, and the Lagos State House of Assembly to pass stiffer laws, using carrot method in fighting against cultism in the State.”

Some of the arms and ammunition surrendered are AK47 rifle, live ammunitions, pump action rifle and its ammunitions, axes, machetes, locally made pistols and SMGs among other weapons.

The Executive Chairman, Badagry Local Government, Mr. Onilude Adeniran said that in the past, the problem of youth cultism was restricted to the tertiary institutions. But now, cultism is even in primary schools.

“Every now and then, my office receives news about cases of drug abuse and cult clashes in our secondary schools. To make the case worse, every street in our cities, towns and villages seems to belong to one cult group or the other,” said Onilude.