Ogun is the only state in Nigeria that has claim to be called the gateway state. It is correct to so state in the sense that it provides the only access from any part of the country to nation’s largest economic nerve centre of Lagos. The state, which houses the first church in Nigeria being the first point of call of the missionaries and state that has produced the only Nigeria’s Presidents, Vice Presidents and notable eminent citizens of substance of Yoruba extractions, is also known to be economy destination of choice that many industries have found good for their businesses particularly manufacturing.
However, all is not well currently with that state as many people looking from outside are beginning to express their apprehensions over the incidences of ritual killing, human stealing and all sorts of criminal activities taking place including the violent activities of land grabbers and the omo-oniles which only slightly subsided recently with the new laws by the state government, which stipulates 25 years for any such person found guilty of the offence.
In the last two years, incidences of people stealing school children were reported either documented officially or undocumented within the communities. Some of the cases reported officially, unfortunately, ended at the point when they were handed over to the police. At Iju, in Atan-Ilogbo Local Council Development Area of the state, there was a case about a year ago of a woman who tried to lure a child in the street with biscuit. Luck ran against her as she was trailed and caught following when she confessed that she was dropped as early as 4am at the Arobieye bridge side in a jeep car by her sponsor to search for preys. She refused to disclose who her sponsor was but a particular ring in her hand was forcefully removed. After being beaten, she was handed to the Onipanu Police Divisional Headquarters near Obasanjo Farm and that was the end of it.
Some years back, there was the incidence of the Dalemo ritualists’ den near Gateway Hotel Ota in a vast fenced land believed to belong to a popular senior advocate of Nigeria at that time. People just taking joy in killing, butchering and causing pains and tears in the land thinking that it is the only way they can meet their egos and financial aspirations in life. It even extends to traditional beliefs where people hide under Oro to axe people down example of which occurred in Ota during the time the monarch of the ancient town died recently.
Another incidence occurred at Gasline area of Ijoko, headquarters of Sango-Ijoko Local Council Development Area of the state where an Okada man, who usually took children of a certain family to school, turned around one day to take the two children to ritualists who butchered them for a meager amount. At Agoro, a community connecting Ifo Local Government and Sango-Ijoko LCDA by Onihale side, an ‘Alfa’ was caught having killed and butchered a lady said to be his girl friend. So many cases of ritual killings by pastors and herbalists have been uncountable.
Within the last one week, a fenced land near Sango Garage and very close to the Sango Area Command/Sango Division Headquarters of the Nigerian Police was discovered to be ritualists’ den where many uniforms of butchered school children were found. Cases of missing school children were rampant in that axis for quite sometimes. Yet the place is surrounded by all security agencies: police, DSS, Civil Defence and even vigilante groups.
The latest Sango incidence was discovered when one of the ritualists’ preys escaped into the open and people swooped on the place opening the gate and made all the discoveries. Just like recently too at Iyana Ilogbo, also in Ogun State on the way to Abeokuta from Sango, another ritualists’ den was found at a long abandoned filling station called Ayokunu Filling Station where human parts were also found.
It would also be recalled how in recent time Commissioner of Police in the state swooped on a cultists’ den at Siun in Obafemi Owode Local Government of the state, where some ritualists were arrested. In some other parts of the state, people disguise to be lunatics and seize that assumption to kidnap and take people into their den of horror. People use supposed commercial vehicles to carry unsuspecting passengers who they take to destinations unintended. People paste posters in public places asking vulnerable members of the public in need of job to call certain numbers so they can come for interview and be paid well only that such people turn out to be ritualists. Many Nigerian citizens of Ogun State have gone unreturned through that trapping, while some of their escapees have been able to share their experiences.
One of the trending of such crimes currently is for somebody to approach another seeking for help and once the person grants his or her request the next thing to behold is an already hypnotised prey, who would be made to empty all his bank savings, cash at home and even be robbed of things not belonging to him or her.
These and many others including known boys in remote communities, arrogating powers to themselves in the name of cultism, are now on the rise in Ogun State that is supposed to be a gateway state in Nigeria.
Too bad it has been gathered however that these evils in Ogun State communities have connivance of some unpatriotic members of the Nigerian police who aid them. Where evils of this magnitude thrive, the police should be asked to speak on why. And that is because many members of the communities appear so fearful to divulge information even to the press because some of them claim that “they have the backing of some police people and they will expose us to the criminals if we dare to report them.”
The DEFENDER therefore, first and foremost, calls on the Federal Government to institute an independent probe of all documented ritual cases in Ogun State with a view to ascertaining who the sponsors are and what connections exist between them and any government or security agent or agency, make public report of the probe panel and then deal decisively with the culprits without allowing any ritualist case handed over to the any police station to die at the point of entry. It has been discovered that cases of ritual killings are on the rise because there has not been any physical and serious effort to show that arrested culprits are ever brought to justice.
The Ogun State government, leaderships of the entire security agencies operating in the state and all stakeholders in Ogun State security are also called upon to wade into these serious but less sensitised security issues and stem the tide before Ogun State begins to lose its place in national reckoning thereby obtaining the unfortunate name of a ritualists’ den of horror.
A stitch in time saves nine!
