How Political Patronage Triggered Thuggery, Cult Clashes

By Shina Abubakar

The recent cult clashes in Osogbo and its environs have generated a lot of dusts over the safety of lives and properties in the state capital as clashes between rival gangs in the last 24 months had claimed the lives of about four young men.

Investigation revealed that the clashes  was a supremacy battle between the groups, as no gang wants to concede defeat to the other in their struggle to claim dominance over one another in the self-claimed territorial ownership.

It was gathered that what metamorphose into cult clashes is the usual area thugs’ skirmishes that evolve between “boys” in one area against others from another environment, but the recent proliferation of cultism among youth gave another dimension to the crisis.

OSUN DEFENDER gathered that the recent inter cult clashes in Osogbo are product of misunderstanding between two cult members sometimes last year over a girl which eventually led to the killing of one Saheed Oba, who belongs to the “Eiye Confraternity”, around Abaku area of Owode.

Subsequently, his group launched a reprisal attack on the ”Aiye Confraternity” leading to the death of one Sodiq at Sadiat Area in Osogbo, who was said not to be a cult member but a close associate of the fraternity and allegedly one of their financiers. This was followed by the death of another guy at Dada Estate area in Osogbo and the death of Ahmed Olugbodi, who was recently released from prison custody.

At present, the Aiye seems to have a upper hand and another attack might be imminent as the Eiye is said to be preparing for revenge to square up with their rival group.

Checks further revealed that one of the reason cultism thrive is as a result of political patronage the gangs enjoy, as each group struggle to outsmart one another to attract politicians as the most viable to be engaged during political activities, particularly now that the governorship election is approaching in the state.

It was even gathered that the menace is attractive to the extent that secondary school students are looking up to thugs as role model and would want to enrol in ‘body-building’ to succeed as a thug rather than an athlete.

According to one of the boys around testing ground who spoke on the condition of anonymity, “there is nothing special about those boys engaged by politicians who used big cars and build houses that others cannot do, hence, many of the boys believed in showcasing their strength to attract politicians’ patronage.

A retired principal, Pa Sulaiman Adekunle while speaking on the issue said, if the menace is to stop, politicians and public office holders need to stop patronising thugs and ensure that there are consequences for all their actions.

A bar owner at Ayetoro who spoke with this medium revealed that the ‘boys’ usually come around to drink at his bar and stated that his observation was that the way and manner politicians patronise thugs during electioneering period has encouraged young boys to want to engage in thuggery, because they see it a means to enrich themselves.

Findings revealed that cultism thrive in the state because some police officers, immigration officers and other paramilitary organisations allegedly belong to some of this fraternity, hence, it is easy for cult guys to be left off the hook when they are taken court.

It was also gathered that the situation is persistent because of the enormous financial support the cult groups enjoy from some internet fraudsters’ popularly referred to as Yahoo boys, who used the cult guys as shields from police exploitation.