Soldier arrested for robbery confesses membership of Black Axe cult group
Asoldier, Daniel Okeke, arrested allegedly for robbery and being in possession of a locally-made pistol, has admitted belonging to a dreaded secret cult gang in Lagos State, the Black Axe”
Okeke, a private in the Nigerian Army, attached to the Supply and Transport (S&T), Bonny Camp, Victoria Island, was arrested at Agboju, off the Lagos metropolis, allegedly while attempting to snatch a motorcycle from its owner.
The Lagos police command said that when the suspect was arrested, he was still dressed in military camouflage and armed with the pistol with three rounds of 9mm ammunition.
Okeke said he joined the Black Axe in 2006 while a student at the Institute of Management of Technology, Enugu State.
He confessed, “I read Public Administration at the IMT but could not complete my studies for financial reasons. It was while in school that I joined the Black Axe confraternity. I participated actively in the gang’s activities while in school and it was then that I bought the pistol and the ammunitions found on me on the day I was arrested. I bought the gun at Onitsha, Anambra State, for N5000. I buried the gun in our compound in the village when I left school to join the Nigerian Army.”
The soldier, who said he was once a corporal but was demoted to the rank of a private when he was attached to a retired Major- General, added he brought the gun from the village to Lagos to protect himself. “After I was enlisted in the army in 2008, I went back to collect the gun from where I kept it. I then brought it to Lagos and buried it in my apartment at the Ojo Cantonment where I reside.
Okeke, who claimed to be a driver at a site where the Army is building houses for its men, denied the robbery allegation. He maintained that a contractual agreement between him and a commercial motorcyclist whose services he had contracted from Mile 2 to Ojo Barracks had only gone awry.
“The cyclist and I had agreed on a fare of N300 to my destination. On getting to Agboju, the bike man stopped and said he wanted to carry another person. I protested that the agreement was to take only me from Mile 2 to Ojo Barracks for N300 not for him and not for him to stop half way to carry another person,” he said.