The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Bala Elkana said no fewer than seven people were reportedly killed during a violent clash between two rival cultic groups.
This was contained in a statement, made available to journalists in Lagos on Wednesday.
Elkana said the incident started on Monday in the Ijede area of the Ikorodu Road, in Lagos between KK and Eiye Confraternities.
The police information boss disclosed that the command instantly responded and arrested 10 suspects.
He clarified that the fracas, leading to deaths, started when an argument ensued between two members of the cult groups, while one of the combatants was stabbed.
Elkana said that the gang whose member was stabbed, believing him to be dead, launched a retaliatory attack on members of the rival group.
He said that the state Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumisu, immediately called for an emergency meeting and summoned the Area Commander, DPOs and the tactical commanders where the incident occurred.
According to him, the police general also deployed the Special Strike Force men to arrest the social villains and deal with the situation.
Elkana recollected that improvements had earlier been organized for cult members to deny their membership, “so the CP is determined to deal with the menace in the state”.
Responding to the development, the Chairman, Ijede Local Council Development Area (LCDA), Mr. Fatiu Salisu, told journalists that the clash started on Jan. 20 when a man was reportedly stabbed with a bottle and was rushed to the General Hospital.
Salisu also said the man was rejected due to the nature of his wounds and was later referred to a teaching hospital where he was attended to.
According to him, some of his members thought he had died, and thereafter resulted in a revenge mission in the community.
“I was at a meeting in Ikeja when I was called that a boy belonging to ‘Eiye Fraternity’ had been stabbed, and when I came I saw one corpse at the roundabout.
“On that day, two people died, another four were killed in the afternoon of the next day, while another one was killed today, making seven,” he said.
The chairman urged all the security agencies, including the army, for their timely intervention, saying that they promptly swung into action, patrolling the hot spots to checkmate activities of the cultists in the community.
“We have intimate the Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu and the Commissioner of Police on what was going on in the community,” he said.
In his reactions, Chief Babatunde Ogunmuyiwa, the Secretary to the traditional ruler in Ijede, told journalists that the incident started on Jan. 20 when some boys from Ipakan and Egbin engaged in a fracas and one of them was badly injured with a bottle.
Ogunmuyiwa said the boy was quickly rushed to the hospital for treatment, but some of his members spread rumors that he was dead, which led to the fracas.
“After a series of investigations, we realized it was a rivalry clash between fraternities.
“We called an emergency meeting among the chiefs and resolved that we should appease the gods.
“The community has been peaceful since most of the boys renounced their membership until this moment,” he said.
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