Does Cultism Really Pay?: The Damoche's example

(By Femi Oluokun)

Lagos State University, LASU as the name suggests is a citadel for learning, but event of past week shows otherwise. The ivory tower was in the news again over the killing of one of its students and popular musician, Damilola Olaniyan, alias Damoche, by cultists.

Damoche, a final year student of Banking and Finance, was reported to have returned from the school’s Sport Centre, where he had gone to cheer his departmental football team to victory against the Insurance department in the Dean’s Cup. In a short while after that, two assailants, on a motorbike, cornered him and shot him dead at the campus gate.

In LASU, this is not the first of its kind. Several cases of cultism clashes have been prevalent in the school. In 1997, two rival cults allegedly clashed over a girl on campus, and the chaos degenerated into full-scale gun fight between them. The perpetrators involved in the bloody clash were said to be children of prominent Nigerians. Two of them, according to report, were children of lecturers in the school, while another was reported to be son of a former minister in the then former Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida’s regime.

During the clash, one of them who tried to escape from the heat of the clash was caught by rival gang and brutally beaten while his car was set ablaze.

Even in 2002, the campus cultists struck and killed Babatunde Salau, then President, Student Union Government of the institution. His murder was the height of retaliatory killings by cultists in LASU. This reprisal attack, which fueled the tone of war and the mass acquisition of arms to prosecute gangland war in the school dated back to 2001, when a group of students under the aegis of anti-cult campaign seized Gabriel Adewale, alias Gasby, at a relaxation spot on campus and accused him of being a cult member. He was arrested, tried and sentenced to death. The sentence, by this anti-cult group said to be opposed to cultism, was carried out instantly. The 27 year-old student of Business Administration was tied to a stake and set ablaze.

Following this jungle-justice, in the same year, 13 other students were summarily executed in similar fashion in LASU, and fifty-six others suspected to be involved in cult activities were publicly whipped and handed over to police authorities for prosecution.

Despite the restiveness on campus, saturated with arms and ammunition acquired mainly by cult members who are desirous to kill, maim, and destroy fellow beings, the school authorities have been less decisive in the measure of putting an end to the ugly situation. Often times, mere notices are issued to warn against membership of such ignoble and shameless cults.

And like most past vice-chancellors of the university, it didn’t go beyond verbal condemnations and threats. Could this be for fear of cult attacks? And why hasn’t the past report of the committees which identified cult members been implemented?

Twelve years ago, like many Nigerians, this mere rhetoric on the part of the school management worried Noble laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka. At LASU’s 12th convocation in 2001, the playwright accused vice-chancellors and principal officers of the nation’s ivory towers of condoning secret cults to even scores.

In his speech, he called out on relevant authorities and students to search their hearts, saying, ‘If you decide that you will not tolerate the killer campus cults, you will do so. You even know them and where they store their arms, I implore you to join hands together to eradicate, without any sentiment, the killer campus cults among you.’

But activities of campus cultism are not limited to LASU alone. Its activities have become endemic in the nation’s ivory towers. Last year, two rival cults clashed at the Ambrose Ali University, AAU, Ekpoma, killing four members of the Vikings in a reprisal attack of one of Black Axe’s member who was shot by the former. The renewed attack began as a result of argument between a suspected former Vikings’ member, who was also alleged to be a member of an anti-cult group in the university with a Black Axe’s member which catapulted into quarrel between the two warring side.

In July 2012, more than six students were felled by bullets in the University of Benin. The age-long fight between Eiye confraternity and Black Axe claimed the life of one Nosa Ebohon, an engineering graduate of UNIBEN at Adolor College road, in Benin. He was said to have been invited by an unknown person to a bar. It was on arrival there that two armed youths shot him in the chest.

Besides normal criminal activities, however, campus cultism has also been linked with political violence in the country. This advantage was first put to use by successive military regime which found the campus cultists as a veritable tool to serve as check to the student union and university staff, who at the time were opposing the regime.

Even after the exit of the military, some political figures and public officers still engage cult services in order to intimidate their oppositions. And this has further made it difficult to curb their activities in tertiary institutions.

This also is believed to have helped cult members to be able to acquire guns and sophisticated ammunitions. With huge money from their backers, they can rent or buy guns at will and stockpile.

School authourities would have to do more than lip service and verbal threats and up their internal security apparatus and have its intelligence unit on its toes. Intelligence report, if they had lived up to their task, should have broken the deed before it was perpetrated.

Although it has been widely reported that more than 70 arrests have been made, following Damoche’s killing in LASU, none as yet been identified as the shooter. It is yet up to the police to live to its responsibility.

Source: Passnownow.com