In many secondary schools across the nation, even more frightening in some primary schools, cultists go about recruiting young boys and girls and sadly, these students are embracing cultism with their open arms and are now dabbling into drug.
“Who is to blame? Parents are to blame. It is a shame that we, the parents, have failed woefully. Majority of us are even afraid to talk to our children. We fear to tell them the truth. Some of us keep quiet when we see our children going wrong so that people will not hear us scolding them,” says Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal.
The CP was reacting to the growing spate of teenage cultism in secondary and primary schools across the country, especially in Lagos State. He harped on the need for parents to monitor the activities of their children both in school and at home as the society is fast losing them to cultism and drug-related crimes.
According to the CP, who was addressing the issue of cultism and drug addiction among young people, investigations by the police revealed that youths join cults to gain supremacy over others, avoid intimidation, as well as to have an edge over girls in their respective communities.
The Police chief, who said six out of 10 youths in the state are allegedly involved in cult activities, urged parents to take absolute interest in the lives of their children, company they keep and what they do at home, including checking their school bags and rooms on a regular basis.
He continued: “Some of you are outrightly afraid of your children and it is a shame on you. Some of us don’t sleep at home to monitor what our children are doing. How many times have you paid a surprise visit to your children’s schools and how many times have you checked what is in your children’s rooms and their bags to know what they bring into your house?”
While speaking at a Town Hall Meeting with some residents of Surulere area of Lagos a few days ago, he hinted that police officer arrested some children between 1am and 2am during an initiation into cult groups, wondering how children between 15 and 20 years would leave their parent’s house at such hours unnoticed.
“Shame on you if you are such a father! Go back home and take charge of your children. Cultism is currently a serious issue we must tackle in Lagos and everyone must be involved. I urge parents to warn their children to stay out of cultism and turn a new leaf because I am coming for them,” he warned.
This is the message the state Commissioner of Police is drumming in the ears of parents to ensure their children desist from all cult-related activities henceforthwith.
Historically, there is this belief that many of the early secret cults in the world were originally founded as benevolent associations for laudable and objectionable purposes, but along the line things changed.
In China, for instance, there are claims that secret associations have always played vital roles in the lives of the Chinese, which extended to their politics, religion, commerce, trade unions and the criminal underworld.
In Nigeria also, it is claimed that ogboni secret society, associated with the making of laws and administration, existed among the Yoruba extraction in the past, according to Fadipe.
It also existed among top civil servants in the defunct Midwest Region. Members became power brokers in the appointments and promotions of top civil servants.
Unfortunately, these one-time secret cult are now ravaging young people in Nigeria for all the wrong reasons. This is a dangerous dichotomy from the old order and should be urgently addressed.
Sunday Telegraph learnt that cultists now use the association as a tool for perpetrating violence, killings, robbery, vendetta, hooliganism, gangstarism, force, unjust denial of other students, false confidence, examination malpractice, fraud, violation of rules and regulations of schools among other bad acts that are against acceptable societal norms and values.
Worse still, cultism is now intertwined with drug abuse. Those, who resist them, have bitter stories to tell.
Lillian Friday, a 16-year-old pupil of Community Secondary School, Otuoke in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, was stabbed in her right eye by a female cultist, identified as Josephine, for her refusal to join her cult group.
For months, Lillian had been under pressure to join the group before they went berserk and attacked her, according to her uncle, Mr. Benson Agiobu.
Also, seven secondary school students were suspended indefinitely over cultism in the state too. The State Commissioner for Education, Jonathan Obuebite said in a statement that the suspended students attacked and injured a fellow student at the Central Epie Secondary School, Opolo-Epie located in Yenagoa.
Obuebite, who didn’t mention the names of the students, said the alleged cultists did not only attack their victims, but also endangered the lives of others.
Sequel to this, he warned all government schools in the state from admitting students without clearance from the state ministry of education as a way of controlling the menace.
Again, Sunday Telegraph learnt that cultists have devised new ways of initiating members far from its age-long strategy. Initially, subtle means such as being kind to targeted members as well as coercing them were adopted as methods of recruiting new members.
In this case, the targeted members were informed and brain-washed in order to give them a soft landing before the initiation proper. Also, the choice of new members, be it a minor or adult, is influenced either by his family background, stature or boldness.
According to the revelation of some boys arrested by the police at Old Ojo Road, the current method of conscripting targeted members into different cult is by invitation to a birthday party or picnic unknowingly to them that such invitations are initiation meeting.
Another method used to forcefully initiate members, is by drugging their drinks. This is the more reason young people should be careful of who they follow around and what they eat or drink in public.
This was the case of an SS1 student, Mujeeb, who was lured to a bar and his drink drugged by a man. He was lured with some bottles of beer to the initiation ground in Ajah, by a man in Orile.
Mujeeb, who lives in Orile, with his parents, said he was invited to Savage Bar at Orile, where he was given some bottles of beer alongside other youths. As he was drinking, he was told there would be a party later that night, which they expected him to attend.
“By the time I finished the drinks, it started affecting my eyes and I slept off. The next time I opened my eyes, I was in at the beach with some other boys. They covered my eyes and my right thumb was cut with a broken bottle and they asked me to suck the blood. They also gave me a liquid concoction to drink. Later, somebody announced ‘welcome to Aiye cult. You have now blended,” he narrated.
For those, who entered voluntarily, some got admitted into cultism to avenge an initial offence. While in secondary school, they joined to instill fear into their fellow colleagues and to be seen as big boys and girls as well as for protection.
Jeoff Ovie, an 18-year-old boy joined a cult group for protection and to avenge his sister’s death, who was killed by cultists at University of Port-Harcourt, Rivers State, over a relationship contest between two cultists of different groups.
Ovie, who comes from a poor background, said he needed power to protect his siblings since his parents are not well-to-do, saying the death of her sister was a great pain and loss to his parents because they put all their hope in her as the saviour of the house.
According to him, he doesn’t want to see his parents go through such grief again, or lose any of his siblings to cult activities, when he can protect them. “I joined cult for vengeance, to protect my family and to have backup,” he said.
Chukwunonso Okongwu, another cultist, joined the bandwagon effect and to him, there was no cogent reason for his joining the cult rather than some of his mates are in cult, boasting about the group. “I just joined my friends; it’s like a club of friends. We go out together and play ball together,” he said.
Instances to this assertion include that of an official of the Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Corps, (LNSC), Monsuru Bolaji, a Corps Assistant 1, who was shot dead in Aguda area of Lagos by five cultists, who accused the deceased of passing information to the police on their activities.
LNSC boss, Mr. Isreal Ajao, a retired Deputy Inspector-General of Police, recently arrested 11 secondary student’ cultists who allegedly defiled three under-aged female students at Agarawu area of Lagos Island East.
According to Ajao, the students, who were Aiye members, usually visit schools of their-would be victims with dangerous weapons, threatening and forcing them to their hideout where they forcefully gang-rape them.
Recently, Idris, a Junior Secondary School 1 student of a private school in Orile area of the state, was paraded alongside 56 other suspected cult members at the Lagos State Police Command Headquarters, Ikeja.
The suspects were arrested inside a bush in Abule Egbanu, Elemoro area of Ajah, during an initiation of new members, including Idris. Two locally-made cut-to-size guns, three live cartridges and 22 expended cartridges were reportedly recovered from them, said police, adding that most of the suspects were not in the right state of mind as at the time of arrest.
In Lagos, however, over 30 minors have been arrested by the State Police Command over alleged connection with cultism, between January and now. Some of them were arrested right at the venues of initiation, by men of the Anti Cultism unit of the command and others by the LNSC.
Other instances where cults have done damage to the society include Delta State, where police recently arrested 28 suspected teenage cultists operating in public secondary schools in Asaba state capital, according to CP Zanna Ibrahim at the weekend.
The teenage secret cult group was known as the Future Trigger Boys. Ten of the suspects were students of Osadenis Grammar School, Asaba. The suspected cultists were aged between 13 and 16 years.
In Benin City, the Edo State capital, 14 Junior Secondary School, JSS, students of Oguola Secondary School, along St. Saviour Road, were arrested for cult-related activities, last year.
Prior to their arrest, a teacher, according to the principal of the school, Mr. Ehanire Reuben, was attacked, with his phone and wallet taken from him by some students suspected to be cultists.
Also, in January, Police arrested two secondary school students, over alleged cultism and robbery. One of the suspects, a Junior Secondary School 3 student, was alleged to be armorers to a robbery gang.
Sometime in Ogun State, eight secondary school students were arrested by the State Police Command in Shagamu over a similar offence. In this case, the students were arrested at the verge of being initiated into Black Scorpion Confraternity by one Ayo Ahmed, a student of Remo Divisional High School, Kara.
Speaking on this menace, a social psychologist, Dr. Candy Onwuraokoye, said cultism has brought certain people together, with unlawful and illegal common goals.
He noted that their objectives have not proven profitable to the society in which they live instead they have caused troubles, destroyed and vandalised, properties belonging to government, sometimes robbery and kidnapping were part of their activities.
On the characters that distinguish cultists from other good students he said: “Cultists hardly stay in class to study. They are fond of moving aimlessly from one class to another in search of new members to recruit into their gang or disturb those students who refuse to join. They disobey laid down rules and regulations of the schools.
“Wherever, they commit any crime, they feel it is only strokes of the cane that would settle it. If it is a mixed school, they are fond of wooing girls and beating others who refuse them. They have certain colours of attires that they are known for, black, red, green and yellow berets.
“They put on mufflers with different colours, depending on the cult they belong to. Some put on chaplet, which is either yellow, or those mixed with different colours, with the same bangles, especially yellow, depending on which group they belong to.”
According to him, improper dressing is the hallmark of their dress-sense. They sag and put on low waist trousers. When corrected, they pick quarrels and fight. Most of them do not have good thoughts or think straight concerning their lives.
“Their performances are usually poor because they hardly study. They have different modes of greetings. The way a boss would be greeted is different from the way a mere senior member would be greeted. Most of them rape girls,” he added.
Speaking on the way out, retired Director, Federal Ministry of Education, Dr. (Mrs.) Nkem Okoro, said what the students need is proper re-orientation, saying at their age, they can’t take certain decisions in life and that is the problem of this.
“When children are conscripted into an organisation like this, the youthful exuberant in them will make them to do unimaginable things. It’s just like a child soldier, who sees gun as a tool to play with, when he gets to war, he will commit the most prohibited war crime,” she said.
She urged the parents to always take care of their children and what they do at home. “As a parent, occasionally bump into your child’s room, especially when that child has been in the room for long. Frisk their rooms when they have gone out.
“If they are at school, call them at night and morning to know where they are. If you suspect anything, you have to be more serious. You must not leave out the power of words. Keep at them, and let them know the consequences of what they do and the evil of cultism. Be observant of the marks on their bodies. ”
However, the Lagos Command Police Public Relation Officer (PPRO), SP Chike Godwin Oti, said the police are on top of the matter and are all out to ensure that cultism and drug addiction are wiped out in the secondary schools and the community.
“We hold seminars, try to educate the students on the consequences of cultism but we can’t just go to schools for any project without them inviting us. Every opportunity we have, we use it to educate them on the evils of cultism and drug addiction.”
Origin of cultism in Nigerian schools
Confraternity in school environment can be traced to 1952, when eight students, led by Prof. Wole Soyinka, formed the Pyrates Confraternity at the University of Ibadan, Oyo State. Founding members were Aig Imoukhuede, Nathaniel Oyelola, Olumuyiwa Awe, Ifeghale Amata, Ralph Opara and Pius Obeghe.
The confraternity had as a mandate to address some social ills and conformist degradation both by students and the society at large. It never had any record of destructive or violent tendencies, as membership was restricted only to those with enviable academic performances.
Its ideals were humanistic and did not pose any threat or danger to students. Unfortunately, as time went by, it was characterised with break-ups with the introduction of ritualistic tendencies and violence ranging from attacks on rival groups, to test each confraternity’s might.
The new order witnessed the display of dangerous weapons and chemicals used during attacks which sadly led to loss of lives and wanton destruction of both private and individual properties. Cases of gang – rape of innocent female students who turned down cultists’ love advances have been reported in most higher institutions. In the process, some of these students are infected with HIV.
This second phase of cultism also witnesses a brazen disregard to constituted authority by members who openly challenge management of tertiary institutions, with threat to launch an attack on anyone who attempts to sanction them. Letters are written to some lecturers who dare to checkmate activities of these cultists, with stern warning to desist or have their lives snuffed out.
| Posted: at | |
TRENDING GISTS 
Drama In Abia as 80-Year-Old Man Divorces His 70-Year-Old Wife, Accuses Son of Kidnapping
NDLEA Uncovers Drug-Hiding Fuel Tanker In Shocking Bust (Video)
JAMB Raises Alarm As Exam Fraud Surges in 2025 UTME — Anambra, Lagos Lead In Arrests
Speeding Truck Crushes Dispatch Riders To Death in Fatal Collision On Eko Bridge
Plateau Dry Cleaner Praised For Returning Cash Found In Customer’s Jeans (Photo)
Football Superstar, Cristiano Ronaldo’s Future In Doubt As Al-Nassr Crisis Deepens
AMVCA 2025: Seven Doors & Lisabi: The Uprising Light Up Nollywood’s Biggest Night (Full Winners)