Two persons have died following supremacy clashes involving members of the Aiye and the Eiye confraternities at Ijanikin, Ojo Local Government Area, Lagos State.
The deceased include an undergraduate of the Lagos State University, Kamoru Lasisi, and a tiler, Lateef Atanda.
A resident in the area told Punch: “The cultists’ attacks in my area are a major concern; initially, they usually go after one another, but now, what they do is go after people that are not cultists in the community. The clashes involve members of the Aiye and Eiye cult groups and each of the groups has a territory in the community that they control.
“In Ijanikin, Aiye cultists are in charge of Alasia down to Adio, Ayetoro, and Ketu areas, but Oto, Cele and Ile Oba Bus Stops, and some parts of Adio are controlled by the Eiye cult groups. Two weeks ago, Aiye cultists stormed the Cele Bus Stop area and shot a 400-level undergraduate of LASU, Kamoru Lasisi. He was shot dead in front of his father’s house despite not being a cultist.
“About two months ago, around 7.50pm, Aiye cultists came to the territory of Eiye cultists to attack a rival and did not meet their target. What they did next was to attack and kill an innocent boy, Lateef Atanda, who just finished writing his WAEC and does tiling business.
“The boy was shot dead on Ago-Idosa Street, Vespa Bus Stop, in the presence of his father, who was pleading with the cultists not to kill him. He was not a cultist and people in the area testified to it. There is always a reprisal for these attacks and it causes unconfirmed killings in the community.”
Another resident in the community told the publication: “The Aiye and Eiye cultists are hunting one another in the community, and when they are doing so, whoever they see with their targets, they don’t bother to do any fact findings to know if the person is a cultist or not, they just attack and kill the person.
“They operate with guns and other weapons. People are afraid in the Ijanikin community. The painful thing is that we know these cultists in the community as they are not strangers. So, whenever people see them appear in the community, they start running for their lives because they know that an attack can happen at any time.
“Initially, we usually face the cultists to chase them away but we stopped as we don’t have the necessary support. The cultists know the policemen at Ijanikin Police Station and get the information whenever they are coming for a raid and flee the community. We want the police command to bring in external policemen to work with us to do an underground operation to arrest these cultists as we are willing to lead them to their hideouts in Ijanikin.”