Over 100 Dreaded Members of the Badoo Cult Group Renounce Cultism in Ikorodu
At least 120 youths on Wednesday renounced
membership of different cult groups and surrendered their weapons on Wednesday
at Imota in Ikorodu area of Lagos State, Owojela’s Blog learnt.
The renunciation by the cultists followed
recent violent clash between rival cult gangs which claimed three lives in the
area.
Addressing
the repented cultists, Lagos State Commissioner of Police (CP), Imohimi Edgar
said that their voluntary renouncement would be accompanied by vocational
training to enable them acquire new skills.
“When I assumed
duty as Commissioner of Police in Lagos, I discovered that cultism and drug
abuse are the most challenging crimes. “The important thing is that the process
whereby youths are now willingly renouncing cultism to take up vocational
skills have started.
“The
vocational job is to be instituted by the council chairman, the lawmaker and
other stakeholders in Imota. “We want a 24-hours economic and nightlife in
Lagos,” Edgar said. He said that the police would obtain data of all the
repented cultists so as to monitor their activities for the safety of lives and
property in the area.
The CP urged
community leaders to partner with the police and other security agencies to sensitize
other cultists to renounce their membership and surrender their arms. The paramount
ruler of Imota, Oba Ajibade Agoro, urged youths in the community to renounce
cultism and embrace peace, adding that without peace there cannot be
development.
The monarch
said that he would use traditional ancestral means to make the repented cultists
swear an oath not to return to cultism.
“People cannot
be living in fear and contribute immensely to the development of the
community,” said the royal father. Mr Nurudeen Solaja, the lawmaker
representing Ikorodu 2 Constituency in the Lagos State House of Assembly, said
that the renouncement was a welcome development.
Solaja said
he would join hands with other atakeholders to ensure that the repented
cultists were re-integrated back into the community.
“We will
train those cultists who willingly renounced their membership to become better
individuals. “Most of these cultists are artisans who don’t have an idea of how
or what cultism is all about; we want to make sure that peace returns to Imota
community which is my constituency,” Solaja said.
Prince Wasiu
Agoro, Chairman, Imota Local Council Development Area (LCDA), said that the
council would continue to sensitise the community on the need to maintain peace
for development of the area.
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