RISING NUMBER OF CULT GANGS
Security agencies could do more to stem the crime
Young Nigerians are increasingly having their lives brutally terminated as a result of cult activities. Three weeks ago at the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, gunmen suspected to be cultists invaded the campus and shot dead a final year student, following a week of violence during which no fewer than five students were gunned down in cult-related clashes. Same week in Obudu local government area of Cross River State, disagreement between two rival cult groups over a stolen motorcycle led to violence that eventually claimed six lives. In a trending video, a 23-year-old cultist arrested in July this year by operatives of Anambra State Police Command, confessed to have killed three people since joining a cult group.
Cultism is not new in Nigeria. Many people in the past have identified with one form of cultism or another either for personal/family protection or for the promotion and safeguard of certain interests. But today, cultism has become almost like a status symbol, especially on our campuses while members kill sometimes for reasons as flimsy as being snubbed by a student of the opposite sex. What’s more, their activities are no more restricted to campuses of institutions of higher learning as secondary school pupils are now being recruited into the fold.
Cult wars and gang violence have exacerbated the climate of lawlessness and fear in the polity. And these frequent clashes have their roots in a fierce struggle for supremacy and contest for control of sphere of influence. Last weekend, a national newspaper revealed that cult clashes have occurred 57 times this year with the body count put at 166. More worrying is that the menace has become so widespread that in many states of the federation cultists of various stripes act with impunity, killing, raping and maiming victims while causing widespread destruction. For many of these young men and women who engage in this gory spectacle of criminal violence, there is nothing they cannot do. There are reports where some use heads of human beings to play football.
It is indeed worrisome that many of our young people now take solace in cult gang instead of devoting their energy to positive enterprise. Usually armed with cudgels, machetes, axes and other dangerous tools, bars and nightclubs, gardens where innocent people gather to revel are not spared from this atmosphere of lawlessness. Indeed, these public spaces have become hideouts for most of these criminal elements to disrupt the social order and unleash terror on members of the public after becoming high on drugs and alcohol.
Although more entrenched in the southern parts of the country, it is a national menace with secondary school children now routinely initiated into cultism. They operate freely on our streets and higher institutions of learning where they have splintered from the original confraternity into Black Axe, Eiye, Aye, the Vikings, Buccaneers, Mafia, Eternal Fraternal Order of Legion, Consortium, Trojan Horse, Iceland Group, Jurists, Black Scorpion, White Bishops, etc.
Perhaps more disturbing is that powerful elements in the society are also known to be fuelling this malady, using the cult boys as political thugs to settle scores against their adversaries. These influential public figures are the unseen faces that provide the funds used to acquire arms and support the egregious lifestyle of this band of social misfits. We call for the arrest and diligent prosecution of these miscreants and their backers for the crime of gang violence to dissuade many young people from venturing into it. We must put an end to this menace.
