As the dark pall of insecurity and fear that has been hanging over the Ikorodu community of Lagos state over the renewed activities of a murderous cult group known as badoo boy’s rages on, a family of one of the victims has petitioned the federal Government seeking protection and justice.
The badoo Cultists are known for their peculiar way of killing their victims by sneaking on people at night and smashing their heads with heavy millstones, a despicable action that in many cases have consumed whole families mainly in Ikorodu axis.
The petitioner, whose name is Durosimi Nurudeen, pleaded with the presidency, the government of Lagos state and heads of security agencies in Nigeria, including the police, which he claimed have been overwhelmed by the sheer criminality of the group, to protect his family from further attacks.
According to Durosimi in the petition addressed to president Muhammadu Buhari and sent also to heads of security agencies, a copy of which was obtained by our correspondent, the persistent attacks of the dreaded group was responsible for his brother, Durosimi Saidi Abiodun fleeing the country to an undisclosed country abroad with his immediate family.
In the petition titled, “President Muhammadu Buhari, save our souls from badoo cultists”, Durosimi stated, “My brother was a lecturer at the Odogunyan, Ikorodu campus of Lagos State University and was very active in the fight against secret cult activities on the campus.
“He was also the secretary of the Community Development Association (CDA) the area where he lived and was the arrowhead in the efforts to galvanize residents into forming vigilante groups to protect lives and property from the menace of the cultists”
Durosimi stated in the petition that after several threats to his brother’s life which came to a peak on the night of June 28, 2017 during which the cultists visited the area and wiped out an entire family, killing them in their sleep, and with obvious signals that the lecturer who had been leading the fight against them would be the next victim, his brother miraculously found his way out of Nigeria.
He said although many attempts were made by his brother to secure police protection and even to relocate his family from Ikorodu to a safer place, suspected members of the cult or their agents still discovered his new abode with clear threats that they were going to harm his family. He added that police were helpless since they couldn’t provide the needed protection.
The petitioner added that expectation of other members of his family that since his brother had relocated abroad the gang would leave them alone, was dashed by several sightings of unidentified weird-looking hoodlums who were suspected to be members of the cult group, within their neighbourhood.
According to him, “Even after my brother had fled, these characters still continue to trail us, apparently thinking that he was still in hiding. At that time, my brother had left his job at LASU and they couldn’t find him in either the campus or at Odogunyan.”
We made many verbal reports to the police but we were always being told to be security-conscious and report any suspicious individuals “but all these proved ineffective as they staged a major attack on our family.” Stating the immediate reason for the petition, Durosimi said, “on December 31st 2020 unknown assailants attacked our home but myself and our octogenarian parents was at home because we’ve be in shifting sleeping since my brother left Nigeria. They were banging the door and before they could break it, myself and our old parents escaped through the back door.
“The noise generated by the attack alerted neighbours who rushed to the house thereby driving the attackers away, otherwise, they would have succeeded in killing us. We are indeed living in the fear of the unknown.
“Our plea to the presidency is that immediate directive should be given to the Department of State Security (DSS) to provide security for us pending the time that these hoodlums would be apprehended.
“Our concern is further fueled by the increased activities of the group which had extended far beyond Ikorodu, where they are still active, to other areas in other states. Recently they unleashed mayhem in Ibadan killing many people as reported by the press.
“With the police looking on helplessly and the people defenseless even while the gang is getting more Bolden every day, the only thing is for the presidency to declare a state of insecurity emergency and wage a war on the badoo cult Group, the way a war is being waged against the Boko Haram insurgency in the northern part of the country”
Efforts to get the reaction of the Lagos Police Command to the petition proved abortive as those called on phone said only the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), who was not available at press time, was the only person that can speak on the matter.