A 15-year-old pupil, Idris, has been arrested by the police in Lagos for allegedly belonging to the Aiye Confraternity.
Idris, a Junior Secondary School one pupil at a private school in the Orile area of the state, was paraded alongside 56 other suspected cult members at the Lagos State Police Command headquarters in Ikeja on Monday.
It was gathered that the suspects were apprehended over the weekend at Elemoro, in the Ajah area by the police and members of a vigilannte group in the community.
They were inside a bush, some distance away from Eleko Beach, Ajah, to perform initiation rites for new members, including Idris, when they were caught.
Two locally-made cut-to-size guns, three live cartridges and 22 expended cartridges were reportedly recovered from them.
Idris, narrating how he was initiated told Punch “a man in my community bought a drink for me. After we finished drinking, he asked me to follow him to Eleko Beach for a party. When we got there, they covered my face and took me inside a bush. They used an object to pierce my thumb and collected some blood.
“As we were about to leave around 4am on Thuursday, I heard gunshots and the police arrested us. I have not been told the name of the cult.”
He said the inscription, ‘Baba Bose,’ tattooed on his chest, was an expression of love for his girlfriend, identified as Bose.
Another suspect, Adedayo Obabiyi, 25, said he and his siblings had attended a birthday party at the beach and were returning home when some hoodlums attacked them.
“They collected our phones and ATM cards and blindfolded us. They took us to an unknown place. When we got there, I heard a lot of voices. They pierced our thumbs,” he added.
The state Commissioner of Police, Edgal Imohimi, parading them lamented the increasing rate of youths’ involvement in cultism.
The CP said, “Based on credible intelligence that members of the dreaded Aiye Confraternity were performing their initiation rites at a shrine in a thick forest in Abule Egbanu, in the Elemoro, Aja area of Lagos, the Divisional Police Officer, SP Mohammed Limawa, mobilised his men. The DPO received support from the undercover operatives of the Area J, Elemoro, and the men of the Anti-Cultism Unit of the command. Together, they stormed the area and arrested 57 members of the notorious Aiye Confraternity.
“Some of them were not in their right senses at the time of the arrest due to drug overdose. Items recovered from the suspects include two Suzuki mini buses with number plates, LND 893 XV and EPE 189 XV, respectively, one Volkswagen bus, one Mitsubishi space wagon marked, SMK 455 AL, and two Toyota Camry cars with number plates, BD 760 DH and LSD 506 EC.”
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