Eight young men who were suspected to be cultists have been charged to court by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), of the Oyo State Police Command, after they were arrested in a bush at Ajibode area of Ibadan during an initiation ceremony for new members.
Those charged to court were Asalu Babatunde (22), Isiawu Stanley (27), Florin Amrenrey (18), Kadiri Marvin (21), Sunday Godwin (21), Yakubu Lukman (24), Salami Ibrahim (28) and Kayode Olakunle (23).
The suspects, who appeared before Alhaja Fatimah Badrudeen of Chief Magistrates Court 1, Iyaganku, were arraigned on two-count charge of conspiracy to form an unlawful society and membership of secret society.
The Chief Magistrate, however, granted them bail and adjourned the case to January 31, 2013.
Crime Reports gathered that operatives attached to Operation Burst, an anti-crime outfit comprising men from different security agencies and floated by the Oyo State government, recently rounded up the accused who were suspected to be old members and new initiates of a cult group known as Black Axe at about 3a.m. on December 21, 2012. Other members, however, escaped.
The accused had confessed to the police that they were members of the secret cult, revealing that they were from different tertiary institutions in Ibadan, Oyo State and Lagos State. One of them, Sunday Godwin, who had been previously arrested by the police for the same offence in July, 2012, however, claimed that he had renounced his membership of the cult group but was mentioned by a friend when he was arrested.
Twenty-one-year-old Godwin said he was still seeking admission to a tertiary institution.
(Tribune)