We are at the mercy of the gang in Ikorodu. No fewer than 50 residents have been killed in the last three years since the gang launched its attack on Ikorodu neighbourhoods.Some residents who moved into Ikorodu after they completed their houses have since relocated to other parts of Lagos for fear of being killed by members of the gang.
I am very sure that they use (‘African insurance’)because there is no way their victims would not shout for help or raise the alarm while being mutilated with cutlass or smashed with heavy stones. This is the puzzle that residents and the police have not been able to find answers to
Adeola Ibiyemi’s relative joy took flight and has not returned several months after his sister’s family was wiped out by unidentified suspected ritualists called ‘Badoo’in the Ibeshe area of Ikorodu in early 2016.
“I am yet to get over the shock of the incident,” said the 25-year-old artisan turned okada operator.
“I was devastated, hence, I relocated from my house which was a shouting distance from my sister’s residence in Ibeshe in order to overcome the trauma of the incident, ” he said.
But rather than his relocation assuaging the tragic killing of his sibling and children, his new abode brought back the memory of the scenario in which his sister and her children’s life were snuffed out. A few months after his arrival, the blood-sucking gang, in the early hours of September 29, last year, took their gory lust to a church premises at Oke-Ota community in Ibeshe and shot dead six members of a family. The victims, Celestine Nwokoye, a taxi driver at the Murtala Mohammed Airport, his wife and four children, including an eight-month-old baby were slain in cold blood.
“The incident at the church shocked me beyond words. I started recalling what I saw at the scene where my sister and her family were killed. I did not know whether to relocate again from Ibeshe or not because the killings have since increased in the community,” he added.
Like Ibiyemi, Ademola Shotineyin, another resident, recalled how the gang killed occupants of a building on his street during a night attack. He explained that the residents no longer sleep with their eyes closed to avoid being caught unawares by the gang.
“I know of a man who was alongside his wife and children in October 2016 on my street. We were shocked to find the family in a pool of their blood at dawn. They were killed by the gang for rituals. Now, we no longer sleep with our eyes closed for fear of being attacked by the gang members.
“The marauding gang had earlier struck in June 2016 in Ibeshe. They killed a Ghanaian woman after raping her and inflicted injuries on her eight- month-old baby. Not satisfied, they returned to the community in July 2016, raped and blinded a 60-year-old Francisca, while her 10-year-old daughter who raised the alarm was brutalised.
”Four months later, precisely on October 21, 2016, the gang allegedly stormed Oluwoye area of Ibeshe, where a man, identified as Kazeem, his pregnant wife, Afusat, 30, and the couple’s two children- Rodiat,6, and Opeyemi, 5, were stabbed to death.”
The brutal killing of innocent residents reoccurred on April 11, 2017, when the gang bared its cruel fang on the family of a school leaver, Lucky Ebhodaghe. The teenager, his father and mother were hacked to death at their residence in Ibeshe Tuntun in a midnight attack. The assailants inflicted deep machete cuts on Lucky’s father, while his mother was initially raped before being killed.
On December 26, 2016, the gang maimed Azeezat Oriade and her brother, Habeeb, on Saka Adegbose Street, off Olu Odo Road, Ibeshe, and also killed a woman and her three children on Mosafejo area of Agbowa are of the community.
“We are at the mercy of the gang in Ikorodu. No fewer than 50 residents have been killed in the last three years since the gang launched its attack on Ikorodu neighbourhoods.
“Some residents who moved into Ikorodu after they completed their houses have since relocated to other parts of Lagos for fear of being killed by members of the gang. The situation is made worse by the near-absence of a proactive security measure to checkmate the gang.”
Pattern of killings
The gang, it was learnt, usually sneak into their victim’s homes in the dead of the night while tired residents are snoring in their beds after a hectic day’s work. They would pull down iron bars and window’s net to enter into their victim’s homes.
This was the case in the attack on the Ebhodages when the gang tore the window net and cut burglar- proof iron to gain access into the victims’ apartment, before inflicting machete cuts on them. Curiously, while the attack was ongoing, neighbours of the deceased were not aware of the incident until the next day in the noon.
“Badoo boys use juju (’African insurance’) which tranquilises their victims and neighbours whenever they want to attack any building. That is the reason why it has become very difficult to arrest them at the scene or identify who they are,” a resident, who chose not to be identified, said.
“I am very sure that they use juju because there is no way their victims would not shout for help or raise the alarm while being mutilated with cutlass or smashed with heavy stones. This is the puzzle that residents and the police have not been able to find answers to, ” he added.
The gang, it was also learnt, usually wipe the blood of their victims and private part of their female victims with a cloth after they have been raped.
“It was observed that Lucky Ebhodaghe’s mother was raped by the Badoo cult group as her underwear was torn into shreds when people saw her lifeless body at the scene of the attack, while it was also observed that her private parts had been roughened. The bottom line is that the gang rape their female victims and use them for rituals,” said a resident who identified herself as Omobolanle.
It was the same scenario when members of the gang attacked a family of six in Adeke bus stop, Adamo, Imota area of Ikorodu on May 3, 2017. The gang killed a man , Taofiq Agbaje, his wife Simiat, and two of their four children, Rodiat, 10, and Toyeebat, 8, while the couple’s two other children, Mardiya, 13 and her one-year-old sister reportedly sustained injuries. The gang had sneaked into the couple’s apartment after tearing the window net and removing burglar-proof of their home.
“They hit the couple and their children with hard objects and wiped away their blood with clothes suspected to be handkerchiefs”, said a community leader who did not want to be identified.
The gang have intensified their terror activities with the result that fearful residents have started relocating from the affected communities. “The situation”, according to a community leader, Chief Christopher Adejuwon, ” has become unbearable for the residents who are daily tormented by the killing of innocent people and feel insecure as there is inadequate security of their lives and property.
“Quite a number of landlords who are members of the community development association have abandoned their houses and relocated from Ibeshe for fear of being killed by the Badoo boys.
“We have made several appeals to the Divisional Police Station in the community and other security agencies to save us from the killer gang but, nothing much has been done to protect us as the gang has become emboldened to further kill more people. We are calling on the state government and law enforcement agencies to save us from this heartless gang.”
Despite repeated assurances given in 2016, by both the security agencies to arrest the situation and burst the gang, there seems to be no let in their dastardly activities as they continue to unleash horror on Ibeshe and other Ikorodu communities.
Exasperated over the continuous activities of the gang, residents of Itesiwaju area of Ibeshe took the law into their own hands on Saturday July 23, 2016. That day, a member of the gang had sneaked into a parish of the Celestial Church of Christ in the community during a vigil and abducted an eight- year- old girl whom he allegedly raped into a coma. He was caught and set ablaze by an angry mob.
However, the release of a suspect within the same period, according to residents, might have emboldened members of the gang to continue with their violent killing of residents.
A resident of Oke Ata area of Ibeshe said: ” At Ibeshe, vigilant residents arrested a suspected member of the gang sometime in 2016, but the suspect was released no sooner than he was arrested to the chagrin of the aggrieved residents. He was released for want of diligent prosecution by the police, hence, the gang’s members are further emboldened to continue with their dastardly killing of hapless residnts.
“We are tired of being killed or maimed by members of Badoo gang in Ikorodu and its environs. We have carried out peaceful protests to concerned government agencies since the gang turned our neighbourhoods into a human abattoir, but nothing has been done to help us.
“We are now using this opportunity to once again draw the attention of the state government, the police and other concerned security agencies to our plight. We are tired of being brutalised and killed by some heartless youths who are being sent by their unidentified godfathers to carry out killings for ritual purposes.”
Responding, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Olarinde Famous -Cole, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), said investigations were ongoing to contain the activities of the gang. He said the police had stepped its surveillance in Ikorodu area of the state in order to ensure protection of lives and property.
“Investigation is ongoing as regards ritual activities in the area. Increased police visibility and adequate security is in force in the entire axis of Ikorodu and Lagos,” Olarinde said.
The post ‘The fear of Badoo’… appeared first on The Nation Nigeria.