CITY NEWS Why we voluntarily gave up our arms – Ex-cultists
The Ijede Local Council Development Area (LCDA) secretariat in Lagos State was quite a drama scene yesterday when over 500 members of various cult groups in Lagos State gave up their arms during an event meant to mark the 100 days in office of the LCDA Chairman, Salisu Fatiu Jimoh.
The ex-cultists, most of them youths whose ages are between 17 and 35, subsequently denounced their membership of various cult groups.
The arms the ex-cultists gave up included pump action rifles, AK 47 rifles, locally made guns, single barrel guns and cartridges of various types, as well as axes and machetes.
They said that they were moved to give up their arms in other to allow peace to reign in the area, and beyond, where they had hitherto operated.
One of them, who identified himself as Olarewaju Adesoye, expressed regrets of his involvement in the different cult clashes in the area. Adesoye said that he first started as a thug to a popular land grabber in the area who was involved in violent clashes among villages over boundary.
He said, “I was the No. 1 man of Eiye. Cultism started from power tussle over boundary issues. But the crisis that followed was not what we bargained for. My appreciation goes to the local government chairman who pioneered this move. We have made up our minds to denounce our membership for long but we didn’t know the logical way to follow in order not to be arrested.”
A former head of a cult group, the KK Confraternity, Abdulrazeez Densi, said that yesterday’s event marked the beginning of a new day in his life as he had been living in “uncertainty”.
Density, as he is widely known, said, “I decided to denounce my membership of the cult group because of the safety of my life and that of members of my community. I have not been happy with all sorts of crisis brewing in our communities as a result of cultrelated activities. I want peace to reign everywhere.”
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Edgal Imohimi, who received the weapons on behalf of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), said that the event marked a new beginning for peace in the area.
Imohimi pointed out that the act was a boost to his much clamoured police-public partnership.
He urged other local government bosses to emulate the initiative of the Ijede LCDA chairman, Jimoh, in curbing cultism in their areas.
The police boss said, “History is being made today. The entire people of Lagos state are happy today. This also shows that we still have good people in our state who will sacrifice their time, finances and safety to ensure there is peace and security in our land.
“Ijede has set the pace for other communities in Lagos State. I am, therefore, calling on other chairmen of local governments in the state to be at the centre of pioneering and powering this concept. They should talk to the youths to shun cultism and drug abuse. We want to stamp out cultism, drug abuse and arms proliferation in Lagos State. Let today be recorded in our history that stamping out cultism can be achieved.”
The voluntary denouncement by the former cultists, according to Imohimi, was the first step in the process of reintegrating them back into the society.
He said, “We have begun profiling them. We will place them on police supervision and monitor their activities. We will also have a memorandum of understanding with those that championed the cause in order to ensure they look for vocational skills to engage the former cultists so that within a short time they will be reintegrated.”