Operatives of the Ogun State Police Command have arrested four underage girls of 10 to 13 years during initiation into a cult early this week.
It was learnt that other male members of the suspected cult group were in their early teens except for their leader who is 19 years old.
All the suspects were, at the time of their arrest, residents of Mosunmore Village near Kobape in Abeokuta.
The Baale of the community, who was surprised at what he noticed, informed the police following the alarm one of the girls’ mothers raised.
It was gathered that detectives attached to Owode-Egba Police Divisional Headquarters led by the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Shehu Alao, swung into action and apprehended them at their camp during the initiation of another set of girls.
The Commissioner of Police, CP Ahmed Iliyasu, told Crimepuzzle on Monday evening, August 28, 2017, that the woman told the Baale of Mosunmore Village near Kobape in Abeokuta that her daughter went out late the previous day.
“Apparently disturbed by the said outing, the woman pestered her daughter who later confessed that she was initiated into a cult group, a development the woman found difficult to conceal to herself and alerted the community head who, in turn, called in my men.
“Consequently, officers of Owode-Egba Division stormed the area and successfully apprehended the 13 youngsters in the process of initiating yet another set of underaged girls”, CP Iliyasu said.
The girls, all primary six school leavers, confessed to being lured into the group by the boys.
The leader of the group known as “Penalty Guys”, 19-year-old Tunde Adio, narrated to Crimepuzzle how he was initiated by one Tosin, also a resident of the community in January 2017, adding that they came about their own group’s name during the last Easter celebration when his third-in-command, 13-year-old Adewale Raphael’s church was organizing a picnic.
According to Adio, “we decided to do customized vests, with the inscription “Penalty Guys”. This was what attracted the girls and agreed to be initiated”.
Adio’s second-in-command, Silas Sunday, 15, was also arrested during the police raid.
Meanwhile, CP Iliyasu has ordered that the suspects be transferred to the Anti-Kidnapping and Cultism Unit of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID) for further investigation and prosecution of the suspects.