Cultists kill four in Lagos, Ogun communities

In separate cult skirmishes in Ogun State’s Atan-Ota and Lagos State’s Ojo areas, at least four individuals were killed.

On Tuesday, a security source in Ogun State confirmed that the incident in Atan-Ota occurred on Monday night about 8 p.m.

According to the source, who requested anonymity for his own safety, the fight erupted in the Kajola district of Atan-Ota between alleged members of the Aiye and Eiye confraternities.

According to the source, members of the Aiye group carried out the attack in retaliation for the previous assassination of one of their members by the Eiye group.

According to Punch, the assailants stormed the area and shot sporadically, killing three persons believed to be members of the Eiye confraternity.

The source said, “There was a cult clash between Aiye and Eiye. The Aiye group killed some Eiye members. When they stormed the area, they shot sporadically and caused tension before killing the victims.

“The killing is a fallout of an attack carried out by the Eiye members on an Aiye member about two weeks ago.”

Similarly, an anti-cultism advocacy page on X (formerly Twitter), NaijaConfra, shared details of the incident in a post on Tuesday.

According to NaijaConfra, the killing stemmed from an earlier conflict between the two confraternities, which had resulted in one death about a week earlier.

The page wrote, “Last night in Atan-Ota, Ogun State, the NBM (Aiye) cult group retaliated for the killing of their member in Kajola last week by launching attacks at Popoola and Kajola — the same spot where their member was killed by the ACN (Eiye) cult group. At least three people were killed in the attack.

“NaijaConfra has obtained two pictures from the Kajola attack and can confirm that one of the victims was an Eiye member nicknamed Coded. We have not yet identified the other victims.

“This cult war has been ongoing for a long time, with both sides blaming each other. While Aiye vowed to finish all of Eiye’s top men, Eiye has vowed to continue striking Aye members within the community — something they claimed they were not doing before.”

Efforts to get a reaction from the Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, Omolola Odutola, proved abortive, as she had yet to respond to an enquiry sent to her as of the time of filing this report.

In an earlier update by NaijaConfra on Monday, another suspected cult attack claimed the life of a security guard identified as Ijaya in the Ojo area of Lagos State.

The assailants were said to have waylaid the victim in front of his house located on ECOWAS Street before attacking him.

The post read, “Last night, a well-known and respected NBM member named Ijaya, also called CSO, was killed by the Eiye cult group in front of his home in the ECOWAS area of Ojo, Lagos State. Ijaya was a community security personnel known for being peaceful, loving, and accommodating to everyone in the neighbourhood.

“Sources confirmed that Eiye had been trying to cause unrest in the area for some time, and last night they succeeded in taking the life of a peaceful man. Tension is now rising, as there are reports of possible retaliation by Aiye.”

When Punch contacted the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Adebisi, on Monday, someone who identified as her personal assistant said she was in a meeting. The PA directed that they send a message to her WhatsApp, but the message had yet to be acknowledged as of Tuesday.

Cult-related killings have remained a recurring security challenge in parts of Lagos and Ogun states in recent months, often linked to supremacy battles between rival confraternities.