Ilorin Cults Clash: Police Arrest 12 more People as Kwara Poly Says Students are not in Session

Kwara Assembly summons school’s management

Hammed Shittu

Kwara State Police Command yesterday said it had arrested additional 12 people in connection with the clash of two rival cult groups in Ilorin, the state capital.

Besides, the management of the Kwara State Polytechnic said there was no death and clash of cult groups in the campus of the institution.

However, following the growing clash of cult groups in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, the state House of Assembly has summoned the management of the Kwara State Polytechnic to appear before it and explanation of the situation.

There were media reports of clashes by suspected cult members of Aye and Eiye confraternities last week in Ilorin metropolis which reportedly led to the death of about 16 of the cult members.

Speaking with journalists in Ilorin yesterday, the state police command Public Relations Officer, Ajayi Okasanmi, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), said the command arrested additional people following the ongoing investigations on the cult clash in the state.

Okasanmi said the number of people so far arrested in connection with the incident has increased to twenty- eight.

He however said the command would arraign them before the Court of law as soon as investigation is completed on them.

Also yesterday, at a press conference in Ilorin on the incident, the Deputy Rector (Administration), Kwara State Polytechnic, Mr. Ahmed Aminu, who spoke on behalf of the management of the school, said there was no cult clash in the campus.

He said the polytechnic finished its sessional examinations for 2014/2015 academic session on August 8 without hitches, adding that circulars were issued about the conclusion of the session with the effect that students should vacate the campus and that the students accordingly vacated.

Aminu, who said that lecturers of the school were presently busy with conference marking exercise, which he said the institution adopted to mark examination papers of the students, explained that since the exercise was a sensitive one, no student was allowed to come around.

He also denied that the clash happened during the screening exercise of the election of the school’s Students Union Government, saying that the exercise was witnessed by security operatives of the Police, Civil Defence and SSS and that it was peaceful.

“We wish to tell the general public and the media that it is not true that there was a cult clash on our campus,” he said.

In the response of the state Assembly to the crisis, the Speaker, Dr. Ali Ahmad, summoned the school authority, while reading the resolutions of the state legislature on matter of urgent public importance raised by the Chairman, House Committee on Ethics, Privileges, Public Service and Judiciary, Hon. Kamaldeen Fagbemi.

Fagbemi raised a matter of urgent public importance on the unfortunate clash of some cult groups in Ilorin metropolis last weekend.

He expressed worry that the existing laws could not abate the activities of secret societies, rather the situation was getting worse.

He noted with displeasure that many innocent people were lost to the weekend clash between the secret societies and called on the House to prevail on the concerned agencies to investigate and find lasting solution to the menace.

Ahmad directed the management of the institution to appear before Assembly’s Committees on Ethics, Privileges, Public Service and Judiciary as well as Education and Human Capital Development with a view to adopting measures that would be tailored towards zero tolerance to cultism as is the case in other tertiary institutions in the state. He asked the committee to report back to the Assembly in one week.

The Speaker also mandated the committees to work with security agencies, Ministry of Justice, the Nigeria Bar Association and other stakeholders with a view to finding a lasting solution to the menace of cultism and ending the violence perpetrated by cultists and hoodlums and report to the Assembly in three weeks time.

He warned that no institutions or individuals would be allowed to endanger the lives and property of the people of the state.

According to him, the House was aware that the issue of cultism had gone beyond the students because many artisans were also joining the groups.

He said the Assembly would not hesitate to amend existing laws if it requires to do so with a view meting appropriate sanction on cult members or the abettors of such evil act.

Some of the members who contributed to the debate, expressed concern over the growing rate of activities of cultists, saying that the peaceful atmosphere of Ilorin had been disrupted by evil acts of cultists, miscreants and drug pedlars.

They therefore blamed the situation in Kwara Polytechnic for admitting too many students without proper screening of prospective students, leading to the inflow of bad eggs into the state.