IKORODU’S BADOO CULT CONTINUES ITS KILLINGS | Mr Olumide's Blog

Church where mother and three kids were killed by Baddo gang

The activities of suspected members of a notorious cult gang known as ‘Baddo’ in Ikorodu and Lekki areas of Lagos has set residents panicking. They are said to smash the heads of their victims with stones before slashing their throats with knives. Residents have alleged that murder rates have risen as high as over 50 in less than four months across the towns.

During such killings, members of the community often wake up in the morning to horrific scenarios where lifeless bodies lie in pools of blood in the floors of apartments.

In areas such as Ibeshe, Agbowa, Ibeshe-Balogun (Oke-Ota to be precise), Isawo, Elepe, Araromo, gang members wielding sledge hammers and guns rule the day as attempts to curb violence in the area has continued to crumble. Here, hundreds of suspected militants and cult members reside and operate in slums. Also, Indian hemp and other illicit drugs are freely used.

Though a joint team of soldiers and policemen have continued to keep vigil in the community, palpable tension still hovers. In the murky waters, naval personnel, as well as police officers from the marine unit with assault weapons lie in their boats ready to shoot at the slightest movement of suspected criminals.

It was gathered that in one of the attacks, three children, between ages four and nine, and their mother were killed on Masafejo Street, Agbowa, in the Ikorodu area of Lagos by hoodlums suspected to be members of Baddo cult. The assailants invaded the family’s residence (an uncompleted Cherubim and Seraphim Church in the community) around 2am and inflicted machete cuts on the children and their mother.

A resident said that the attack might not be unconnected with incidences of ritual killings in Ibeshe and Okegbegun communities in Ikorodu where some hoodlums gained entrance into houses at midnight.

In a similar manner, one Grace Ebyna Jubreel, a school teacher at the Methodist Primary School, Ibeshe was reportedly killed by hoodlums said to be rapists before her 14-month-old daughter at their home.

Suspected members of Baddo confraternity have been reportedly responsible for many crimes involving rape and murder in Ikorodu, according to police investigations. In July 2016, the gang allegedly raped and blinded a 60-year-old woman identified as Francisca. It was also revealed that they raped the victim’s 10-year-old daughter for raising alarm.

A family of three, comprising father, mother and their young son, were murdered at Ibeshe Titun area of Ikorodu. The deceased, one Lucky Ebodaghe, wife Margaret and their 15-year-old son, Jonathan who was preparing for his West African Secondary School Certificate examination, were killed in their home on Monday, April 17 by assailants who were identified as members of the Baddo Cult group that has been terrorising the Ikorodu area for many years.

Rasak Tobiloba, an undergraduate of Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu campus alleged that Badoo would break into homes at midnight in underwear and rape the women. Consequently, women from Oke-Ota, Ibeshe-Titun, Abule-Oshorun and other communities mobilized a protest at the Palace of Olubeshe of Ibesheland and residents of Igbo Agbowa, Owode, Oluwoye, Olu Odo and Ibefun communities in Ibeshe, are deserting their houses over incessant killings and rape in the area.

Residents said despite protests by  women in the area against the killings and rapes, the policing in the area has remained poor, while arrested hoodlums have been released and allowed to return to continue perpetrating mayhem in the communities.

Abimbola Jubreel, who is based in Oshogbo, Osun State, said it was clear the hoodlums had wanted to rape his wife but when they could not have their way, they decided to kill her. He learnt that the vigilante met their baby crying, with her mother writhing in pain when they arrived, and that they also saw the stone and other weapons the criminals used to kill his wife.

Meanwhile, a 28-year old lady, Abiodun Kokoroaiye, has recounted how her mother, son and two siblings were brutally murdered also in Agbowa area of Ikorodu by a yet-to-be identified killer squad. The deceased were gruesomely murdered in a church, Imoleayo Cherubim and Seraphim on Oshiyemi Street, Mosafejo, Agbowa around 3am.

“The hoodlums sneaked into our church, where my mum and three others were sleeping and murdered them in cold blood. The killers smashed their heads with grinding stone and used a machete to dismember their bodies. Christiana, 9, Yusuf, 4, and Debora, 11, were all butchered in the most horrific manner,” Kokoroaiye said, adding that in another compound on Olayinka Street, three persons, a father and two sons, were also murdered in similar manner, showing that it was the same gang.

“Right now, we have all deserted the area for fear of possible attack by the gang. Why I am still at Ikorodu is to secure the bail of my elder brother, Seun, whose daughter was also killed. He was detained, but later released. He was asked to be reporting at the police station daily,” she said.

Kokoroaiye further said that the murder happened around 3am but the police did not respond to their distress call till 6am, showing that the area is not secured. “That is why we are calling on Governor Ambode and the State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, to provide security at the Agbowa area. We are also making a passionate appeal to the governor to prevail on the police to release the dead bodies of our slain relatives so as to give them a befitting burial. We are also appealing to the police commissioner to prevail on the Agbowa police station to stop harassing Segun whose child was also murdered.”

Another parent, Oluwaseun Kokoroaiye, said his first child, Omolara Christina was among those murdered in cold blood. He said: “I did not know that they attacked my father’s church, but the shout of help from a building close by alerted me. I rushed to the building half naked and met a man and his two children in a pool of blood. I went back home to dress properly and alerted other neighbours so that we could rush the man, and one of his son who were still breathing to the hospital.”

He added that he took the boy on his motorcycle to General Hospital, and on his way back, saw his father with his second wife coming towards the church. He learnt that somebody attacked the church. “I told them it wasn’t the church, but a building close to mine. They told me that killers also attacked the church. When we got there, we saw my mum, my first child, Omolara my niece and a foster child. The three children were dead, but only my mum was breathing. We rushed her to the hospital where she later died,” Kokoroaiye said.

Kokoroaiye said he came back home frustrated, only to meet some policemen from Agbowa. “They said they wanted to go with the corpses of the three children, but I refused. I told them we will rather bury them since the worst had happened. They saw a rubber band on my wrist and the police invited me to the station, where the DPO asked what the rubber band on my wrist was for. They asked which cult group I belong to and that I sent the killers after my step-mum, only for them to also kill my mum. I was detained for a day,” he explained.

A security expert said the incident was one in a series of ritual cases that had besieged Ibeshe since 2015 and that the police have been unable to tame the situation, which happens regularly every three months.

The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni had at a press conference held in Lagos said the command has improved police visibility in the area, vowing that those behind would soon be arrested and charged to court.

Source: Abuja reporters

Mr Olumide's Blog