Five men, allegedly arrested in
possession of a gun, have denied being armed robbers.
According to them, they were just
ordinary cult members, who use the gun found in their possession for fighting
rival group members.
The suspects, Yusuf Oshinubi (29),
Seyi Ogunseyi (42), Kolawole Abdulfatai (23), Lateef Ayodeji (24) and Olamide
Shoretire (28), were arrested at the Ijoko area of Sango, Ogun State.
They were arrested by operatives of
the Inspector-General of Police Special Intelligence Response Team (IRT), Ogun
State annex.
The police said: “ The suspects’
operation, under the cover of Aiye Confraternity reached an alarming stage,
compelling the Ogun State Commissioner of Police, on July 3, alerted his area
commanders, divisional police officers and head of departments to be vigilant.
The CP sent out this alert following intelligence gathered about the ongoing
preparation of the secret cult boys and
girls for the celebration of their founder's day which they wanted to mark as
7/7 and 8/8. It was based on this Intel that the Ogun State IRT swung into
action. The five suspects were arrested. The IRT operatives’ recovered one
locally made single barrel gun with one live cartridge.”
One of the suspects, Oshinubi, who
was first arrested, was used as bait to catch others.
Oshinubi, who said that he is
married and member of a local vigilante group in Ebute-Meta, Lagos State, explained
that he was made a cult leader because of his experience.
His words: “ My father resides at
Ijoko area of Sango. It was due to my frequent visits to Ijoko area and my vast
experience in cultism that made cultists in Ijoko to make their leader. Before
I became their leader, the cult members in the community majored in armed
robbery and made a lot of money through robbery.”
Speaking on the gun recovered from
him, Oshinubi said: “The truth is that one of our members gave that gun to me.
I was planning to return it to the owner when police arrested me. I never used
the gun to rob, rather I used it to fight and protect myself.”
Another suspect, Ogunseyi, married
with four children, said explained that the gun recovered from the gang
belonged to Kolawole.
He added: "Kola came to me at
night and gave me the gun to hide. He collected it the second day.”
Kolawole, a bricklayer, said that he
joined the confraternity to protect himself because rival members were oppressing
him.
Lateef on the other hand said: “ It
was my friend, Yusuf that pointed me out to the police, just as I was returning
on my motorcycle.”
Olamide, who sell fairly used
clothes at the Super area of Lagos State, said: “It was a bad mistake for me to
join cultism. When I am released, I would denounce the group.”
Although all of them admitted they
were cultists, they, however, insisted that they were not terrorists, but
repented cultists. Kolawole quickly explained that he didn’t join others
in repenting because he was a Muslim. But he said that he too would denounce
cultism because he didn’t see any gain in being cultist.
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