Residents of Surulere Estate, Alagbado, Lagos live in fear after cult members invaded the area hacking a prince and two others to death. In what could be described as a supremacy battle in the area between Aiye and Eiye confraternity, eye witness account said the group that invaded the area last
Tuesday night sang in celebration after hacking to death a young man, identified as the son of one traditional ruler in the neighbouring town. Two persons were said to have been killed in the same area earlier.
The clash, which was said to have begun last Sunday, lasted through Wednesday, leaving three persons dead and several others injured. Police has since confirmed the story.
Lagos State Police Command and Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Dolapo Badmus, in a text message, said: “On 21/9/16, at about 7:30pm, information received from AIT Road, Alagbado indicated that two cult members engaged in a physical fight that led to their deaths. A team of police men from Alagbado has taken the corpses to hospital for autopsy while the command is investigation the occurrence.”
How it started
A resident, who pleaded anonymity for fear of being attacked, narrated: “At about 10:30pm, there were gunshots and we (landlords) came out. We heard the young man received a call and dashed out at that night to buy airtime. We heard that his guardian pleaded it was late but he insisted going out to get airtime saying the call was important. But unknown to him, the cultists ambushed him and shot at him twice.
“We heard the gun shots did not penetrate and he ran. But his assailants gave him a hot chase and hacked him severally on the head. We were told that his killers also broke the window of the house where they caught up with their opponent, warning the occupant: “We have not come for you, don’t ever attempt to call the police.”
We also heard that they celebrated the killing of the young man, singing: Uso uso, uso! ….‘Muso, muso, muso. ….hey!! muso, muso, muso! ….hey!!! He was wearing a charm round his waist which perhaps prevented the gunshot from penetrating.”
Land grabbers
Cult issue may not be the only challenge the residents are facing, as land tussle between them and land grabbers added another tinge of controversy to the issue. The residents said although this was a clear case of cultism, land-grabbers, who have also been unleashing terror on residents with a view to chasing them out of the community, wanted to take undue advantage of the situation by linking the cult attack to the landlords and CDA.
Speaking with the CDA executives separately, one of them said: “The land grabbers that forcefully took over some property in the community and their cronies are linking the cult clash with land matters. “Before now, we have reported to Area M that some people who have no property in the community are residing there and the police invited them, but they did not honour the invitation. Unfortunately, this incident happened a few days after. So, they are now looking for ways to link the CDA with the cult attack.
“When the incident happened, one of us who called the police for help said, the police confirmed they were cultists that they were chasing them. Before the Tuesday incident, two other cult clashes had happened in the neighbouring community”.
Another of the CDA executives said: “We have been asking for police protection. We dissociate ourselves from this in any way and we charge the police to do through investigation and bring the perpetrators to book.”
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