Acting Lagos State Police Commissioner Imohimi Edgal warned that he would arrest and charge with murder any pastor in whose church ritualists kill worshippers during vigil in a bid to stem the Badoo menace.
He said:
“Henceforth, no pastor should organise a vigil in Ikorodu without adequate security arrangement. Do not organise any vigil if you cannot protect the lives of the people who attend, All churches and mosques should not have vigil in isolated locations and pastors leave them to go home and they attack the women and children. If you must have night vigils, you must put in place, structures to protect your worshippers. If I hear that anybody is murdered in any church or mosque, I will arrest the pastor or the Imam and charge them to court for murder. Three-quarter of the cases we have had in Ikorodu is related to relatives of a church member or pastor. They either occurred in the church premises or a building housing a church. We must protect the women and children.”Majority of the ritual killings, he said, took place on the church premises, adding that in most cases, the pastors would have concluded their prayers and left before the murderers would attack vulnerable women and children.”
The meeting, was held at the palace of the Ikorodu monarch, Oba Abdulrasheed Shotobi, and started at 10:30pm on Saturday and ended around 1am yesterday.The Chief of Police announced a curfew between 1am and 4am across the district, urging the traditional rulers to prevail on his chiefs and youth to commence patrols and ignite burn fires to ward off the killers.
He further said:
“I thank you all because the town is peaceful today. We achieved that peace because you partnered with us. But I have come with good news and bad news. The good news is that crime rate in Ikorodu is very low and my officers here are happy with the corporation they have received. The bad news is that out of the seven principal suspects charged to court in connection with the ritual killings, five of them have been granted bail by the court and they have gone underground. Recently a case of murder at Agbowa that resembles their style of ritual murder was recorded. Investigation had gone to advance stage and details would be given. We are tracking the five major suspects and I can assure you that we would get them soon. With their release, there is need for vigilance. We must immediately restore all security measures put in place that chased all hoodlums and criminals away from Ikorodu. This period of peace had made us relax and so, we have to wake up again because there is a possibility of those freed hoodlums to unite and trouble the peace in Ikorodu. We must not be taken for granted. It is time we began to enforce security strategies. Communities should set a particular time for search. These crimes usually happen between 1am and 4am. Any person moving around between those times must have a good reason. Vigilante groups should be strengthened and given mandate to question people moving around by that time. Anyone without a good reason should be arrested and handed over to security agents. I will not tolerate jungle justice. We have reached towards the end of the year and at this time, there are people who haven’t worked throughout the year but want to enjoy Christmas and New Year. They are the ones that take to crime. We must not allow them succeed in Ikorodu. You have my authority to come out and organise yourselves into street groups to patrol your neighbourhoods. I expect to see burn fires at inner neighbourhoods so that people know we are alert.”
Edgal appealed to the monarch to direct his chiefs and Community Development Associations (CDAs) to reach out to families living in isolated buildings so that they could join the patrols.
“I have told my policemen that they must have a strong partnership with local hunters, local vigilantes, area boys and others,” he finished.
It was after this meeting that the cult group struck and coincidentally they killed a pastor, smashing his head with two big stones that were found by his side and left his wife and child unconscious.
Obinna is a fiction writer from Lagos, Nigeria, and grew up loving comic book characters and superheroes. He watches lots of action films and writes entertainment and technology articles. He is also interested in science and how things work.
7 thoughts on “Lagos State Police Up Their Security Measures Against Badoo Cult.”
SidomexEntertainment is your one-stop-shop for news, entertainment, fashion, music, sports and lifestyle. We provide you with the latest breaking news and videos straight from the entertainment industry.
7 thoughts on “Lagos State Police Up Their Security Measures Against Badoo Cult.”