Barely one week after six people were shot dead in a bloody cult clash in Ikere Ekiti, the Ekiti State Police Command has arrested five suspected cultists during an initiation rite.

According to a statement issued by the police command spokesman, ASP Sunday Abutu, yesterday, the five suspects were arrested around 1.30p.m. by the Police Rapid Response Squad (PRRS), after a tip off that some members of a secret cult were performing an initiation rite in a bush behind the Ekiti State University(EKSU) campus.

In the process, however, five suspects were arrested and all claimed to be students of the Ekiti State University, while other suspects escaped.

Abutu gave the names of the suspects as: Adeyeye Adeyemi, 29; Adeyemi Tobi ,25; Moyosore Onajobi, 22; Dickson Godwin, 23, and Olowosaye Martins, 21.

Abutu said items recovered from the scene were one cut-to-size locally made pistol, two expended cartridges, one gallon containing liquid drug, weeds suspected to be Indian hemp and two motorcycles.

Meanwhile, a legal luminary, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), has condemned the killings of six persons in a cult clash in Ikere Ekiti last week.

Olanipekun , who regretted the killings, hinged the upsurge of cultism and crime in the country on youth unemployment, urging well-meaning patriots to place high premium on youth empowerment to complement government’s efforts.

The Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), who spoke in Ikere Ekiti when Wole Olanipekun Foundation distributed N50,000 each to 200 old people and youths in the town, said the measure was conceived to reduce crime rate through the promotion of small scale businesses.

He said:

How can our youths- our future-be killing in the name of cultism? We need to help the government to engage our unemployed youths. This shouldn’t be left to the government alone. The killing has portrayed us in bad light. We shouldn’t be in the news for negative reasons.

I was saddened when I heard that six of our youths were killed. Though, not all of them were indigenes, we need to look inwards and protect our town from being turned into a killing field.

Olanipekun added that the foundation intended to empower 600 persons with N50,000 each between 2020 and 2022, saying those who received cheque represented the 2020 batch.

Also, angered by the increasing crime rate in the town, Ogoga of Ikere Ekiti, Oba Adejimi Adu, has warned that: “We will invoke the spirit against cultists, because we won’t allow them to dent the reputation of this town.

We will place a curse on them, but before we do that, we call on them to change and if they refuse to change, they will face the consequences.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.