Policemen from the Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT), led by Olatuniji Disu , a Deputy Commissioner of Police have arrested three leaders of a deadly cult group, in the Abeokuta area of Ogun State.
The suspected cult leaders arrested were identified as: Saeed Taiwo, Isaiah Babatunde and Oyede Sulaimon and they were reportedly responsible for some of the killings of suspected cult members around Ita Oshin and neighbouring communities in the Ogun ancient town.
In his confession, the leader of the gang, Saheed Taiwo disclosed that his gang not only killed rival cult members but also cut their hands and use for rituals to fortify themselves against attack from their rivals and against arrest from the police.
A police source at the IRT said that the police are on the trail of another notorious member of the gang, simply identified as Ben, who reportedly vanished into thin air with the gang’s AK 47 riffle.
Saeed Taiwo, in his confession to the police said “My name is Saheed Taiwo AKA Akerele. I am from Abeokuta, I am 27 years old. My father is from the Ita Oshin area of Abeokuta. I attended July’s Nursery and Primary School, Ita Oshin, Abeokuta and Anglican High School Ibara, also in Abeokuta. I dropped out of school in SS 2 in 2019”
The suspect further confirmed that he was arrested for cultism. “I am a member of the Black Axe Confraternity, popularly known as Aiye. I was initiated into the group in 2018. I wasinitiatedbyEasy. Hewasthe leader and the Number 1 then.”
Taiwo explained that “On my own, I cannot say that I have killed any number of people. We operate as a group and we have killed many people. I can’t even say the number of people that we have killed. We were always instructed by our leaders in the group to go and kill.
“Anytime we killed any rival member, we used to cut off their hands. Other members of my killer group are Ben, Dreams among others. We use the severed hands for ritual.
“We have assorted arms and ammunitions. There is hardly any arm that you cannot find with our group. We have single and double barrel guns, AK 47 and many more. I was using a double barrel gun for operation. I used to keep my gun with Rasqie .He escaped on the day I was arrested by the police.”
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The cult member also said “We give the severed hands to a set of twins in the Ago Oka area of Isale Ogun in Abeokuta . It has been long that we have been giving the severed hands of our rivals to the twins. That was how I met it.”
On how the gang killed a rival cult member in the Lafenwa area of Abeokuta recently, Taiwo said, “It was a reprisal attack. There was an issue between our boys and the Eiye cult group. The Eiye cult group killed a member of our group during the clash. Our leaders ( Dre and others ) mandated us to go and see what was happening there. When we got there, we identified one of them. Later we traced the identified Eiye member, who was one of those who killed our member at Lafenwa and killed him. We also cut off one of his hands with our axe. We don’t call it axe in our group. We call it ‘ seven.’ We took the hands to the twins. We didn’t collect any money from them.”
The cult leader also revealed that his gang was responsible for the killing of a leader of a rival cult group in the Ita Oluwo area of Abeokuta some months ago. “The guy’s name was Tommy. I was not one of the people that went for the operation but Ben Dre (Dare) ,Killer, Idris Aloma, who just bought a Pump Action Gun.
“Six of them went for the operation on a motorbike. What they told me was that they matcheted him to death and even shot. He was one of the leaders of the Aiye group. All the cult killings are reprisal attacks.”
The Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi confirmed the arrest of the cult members and assured that other leaders and members of the different cult groups who were responsible for the killings in Ogun State would be arrested and made to face the full wrath of the law (Saturday Independent)
