Some schoolgirls in Lagos yesterday recanted their ordeal while being forcibly initiated into cultism by cult members who are their schoolmates. One of the victims, who identified herself simply as Alaka, said that one of the cult boys, Dare, took her and her friend, Suliat, to join his group.
“Dare took me away from school with a gun and when we got to the place at Agarawu, I was asked to kneel down by seven boys. They took me away through tricycle. Dare and Wakilu covered my eyes with black handkerchief.
They poured something on my body, raped and initiated me. Dare slapped me three times and said I have been initiated,” the 15-year-old girl said amid tears. Also narrating her ordeal, a JSS3 victim said she was forcibly taken to Agarawu where four boys forced her to kneel down and pulled off her uniform. The victim said the boys gang-raped her for many days and did not allow her to go home. She said: “They forced me into the room and ordered me to pull off my clothes.
They blindfolded me and poured something on my body before I was repeatedly raped for days. They said they had initiated me by doing so.” However, nemesis has caught up with the notorious students of King Ado High School, kidnapping, raping and initiated pupils of secondary on Lagos Island into cultism.
They were arrested by the Lagos Neighbourhood and Safety Corps (LNSC). The cultists initiated any female student or other target of their choice by first kidnapping her, forcing her to kneel down and pulling off her uniforms before gang-raping her.
T h e y would hold the victims in hostage for days and perform other rituals on them before they release them to go back home or the school. They usually whisk their targets away from the public places or school through threats and take them to a secluded place in Agarawu area on Lagos Island and blindfold the victims before having canal knowledge of the victims in turn.
“This is the way of initiation into “Supreme Boys Club”, also known as Eye,” said one of the cultists during their parade before journalists at the Safety Arena, Oshodi, the headquarters of the LNSC. It was learnt that after criminally initiating their victim, they would tell her not to tell anyone or face death.
The arrested cult boys are Kadiri Ajala, Muyideen Ganiyu, Kayode Damilare, Idogun Yinusa, Yinka Adewuyi and Laguda Kamal. One of them, Wakilu, whose house was used as ‘Cult House,’ was yet to be arrested. Explaining their mode of operation, Chairman the LNSC, DIG Israel Ajao (rtd), wondered why schoolboys could engage in such dastardly acts. He said: “They don’t just kidnap, they gang-rape them and after taking their turns, they call on other members to also come and have their turns.
This is what they call process of initiation for the cult group.” Ajao said the six boys, many of whom were dropouts with some still in school, had molested their victims repeatedly, going by the agency’s investigation. Also, mother one of the victims, said that Alaka didn’t come home for some days. She said: “On several occasions, we will discover that she was missing at home for days.
I went to school to complain to the principal but I was told the cult boys were after her. The principal called on the police to dislodge the cult boys who come around the school. A few days after she was also missing at home for days, it was on Lagos Island near Agarawu that we found her. “She never told anyone what has been happening. It was after we involved the LNSC officers before she revealed all that has been happening.
That is why the boys were apprehended.” Meanwhile, Ajao said that the suspects would be prosecuted. He called on parents to always speak out when they notice strange developments from their wards. The LNSC chairman regretted that cultism is rampant among pupils.
