Tackling the Badoo cultists

I grew up in Ikorodu in the early 1990s at a time when it was safe for little children to play miles away from home. Then, young and naive, I would adventurously sneak out of home with some other boys in the neighborhood. We would ride our own invented bicycles – a cylindrical aluminum rim flogged to command by light rods made from steel shirt hangers. We would tour the then tiny town, barefooted, picking up all manner of useful rubbishes from every corner of the street.

Saturdays were joyful days. No school. As soon as we ate the breakfast, we would hit the streets. We didn’t have the luxury of visiting a swimming pool, but luckily, we had the Majidun River not too far away. So, we had the routine of visiting the river on Saturdays.

Children who could not how to swim would play at the bank, while the ‘experts’ would dive into the river. By noon, our eyes would have become red and our bodies white. To avoid being detected at home for daring to swim at the dreaded Majidun River, we would comb our hairs, rub Vaseline on our bodies and switch to football. At least, playing soccer attracted a less severe punishment than swimming in the river.

Sadly, the story has changed today. Children and adults, overshadowed by insecurity, are now too afraid to leave their gates in broad daylight because of the terror in the town. The beautiful Spartan Ikorodu neighbourhood has transformed into a jungle, perhaps a synonym for hell. Criminal elements are at the verge of overrunning the once peaceful town, planting crimes carelessly hither and thither like the farmer in the famous parable of the Sower. In the last one year, Ikorodu has witnessed numberless cases of kidnapping, rape, cult clashes, armed robbery, pipeline vandalism, cybercrimes, etc. However, none of these dreadful crimes has frightened the residents of Ikorodu more than the terror unleashed on the town by the ruthless Badoo cult group.

The cult group is believed to be a ragtag killer group which started about a year ago in Ibeshe area. Badoo has become notorious for targeting and attacking, at midnights, families living in secluded buildings. They smash the skull of their victims with either mortals or big stones, wipe off their blood with white handkerchiefs and rape the female victims mercilessly. More than 10 families have been wiped out by the Badoo cult group in the past six months alone.

A closer look at the pattern of the attacks, it was observed that members of Badoo only attack isolated buildings, preferably uncompleted buildings occupied by a single household. More than two-third of their attacks has followed this pattern. No doubts, the cult group prefers these kinds of buildings and households because they are soft targets. Victims may not get help from neighbours when in crisis.

It is incomprehensible for a group to kill people, especially innocent children, open their skulls and strip their bodies naked. It become even more portentous when a group attacks pregnant women, pierce through their bowel and remove foetuses. This is barbaric.

The security agencies’ responses to the Badoo menace were, at best, disappointing. When the Badoo killings first started in Ibese in July 2016, security agencies turned deaf ears to the cry of residents. This gave the Badoo cultists a confidence to spread the terror to other parts of Ikorodu.

When the residents noticed the security agencies’ inadequate response to the menace, they resorted to self-help, delivering jungle justice on suspected Badoo cultists.

Residents believed the police could release the suspects or at best, the suspects would not be charged to court. Therefore, they set ablaze anyone apprehended, whether guilty or innocent. And sadly, jungle justice has made the Badoo cultism more mysterious because the lynching erodes the chances of obtaining vital information from the suspect. Moreover, jungle justice increases the chances of punishing innocent people who are mere victims of circumstances.

I write this subheading in my capacity as a trained sociologist and criminologist who have had the privilege of sitting under the tutorage of security experts from the most prestigious Nigerian universities. Having studied thoroughly the patterns of the Badoo attacks myself, I propose the following as viable measures to eliminate the Badoo cult group.

First, let it be known that the Badoo cult group profiles its victims before every single attack is carried out. They take ample time to gather information before they strike soft targets. The first thing to do, therefore, is to make every household in Ikorodu less vulnerable. Owners of houses without burglar bars and iron doors should install them immediately. This will prevent or delay access in the event of a Badoo attack.

Secondly, most of the Badoo attacks were been on households with less than two adult males. This is not a coincidence. As a rule, criminals prefer to attack places where there are little or no resistance.

Badoo cultists, as noted earlier, usually attack secluded buildings. At this point, those living in highly vulnerable buildings should evacuate such buildings immediately or hire competent security operatives to guard such buildings. Residents of such buildings who do not have money to relocate and hire guards, may buy two or more dogs as companions. This would go a long way to deter members of the dreadful criminal group.