‘I killed my cult rival for daring to challenge me’

A 30-year-old suspected member of a secret cult gang, Muhammed Gbadamosi, whom the police arrested over the death of a rival, Sunday Madariola, has allegedly told the police that he killed the rival for daring to challenge him at the Ibese beachside, Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos.

The police alleged that Gbadamosi macheted the deceased to death on May 21, 2020 during the initiation of new members at the beach.

“I asked Sunday to leave the place where our group initiation ceremony for new members was to be held at the beach but he refused. I sent Yusuf, my second-in-command, to also ask him to leave but he was adamant. So I personally ensured he would not live to watch the initiation ceremony. I don’t know if he was a spy; he just kept on following us,” the Lagos State Police Command quoted the suspect as saying.

The Command’s Public Relations Officer, Bala Elkana, who confirmed the arrest of Gbadamosi in a statement yesterday, said the Anti-Cultism unit of the Command also arrested four other suspected cultists – Onibudo Afeez, Is Habeeb, Felix Igwoke and Taiwo Iyanu – at Femi Taiwo Street, Ikorodu.

“They were arrested in an uncompleted building holding a cult meeting. One Adeoye Daya, 25, a hitman of the Aiye confraternity, was arrested at the Ikorodu garage with one locally-made short gun and rounds of live cartridges.

“Shodeinde Tosin, a hitman of the Eiye confraternity in Igbogbo, was also arrested with a locally-made short gun. The operation will be sustained in all parts of the state until those criminal gangs are totally defeated. The suspects will be charged to court after investigation,” Elkana said.

Elkana said rival cult groups, especially in the Ikorodu area, had in the last few weeks engaged one another in supremacy battles, with resultant deaths from both sides.

“Operatives of the Special Strike Force were given clear instructions to reclaim and dominate the public spaces and ensure that no cult group or gang operate in any part of Lagos State.

“The Strike Force has so far arrested 185 notorious cultists and recovered eight locally- made pistols and other dangerous weapons from them. Suspects arrested confessed to be members of Eiye, Aiye, KK, Buccaneers and Vikings confraternities, among others.”