No fewer than 100 people suspected to be members of the dreaded Badoo cult were arrested over the weekend during a raid on their hideout by operatives of the Rapid Response Squad, RRS, of Lagos State Police Command, Anti-Robbery operatives, members of the Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC, and members of vigilante groups in Ikorodu.
Police sources disclosed yesterday that one of the Badoo suspects said that each ritual handkerchief used to wipe blood from the victim’s skull after it’s been broken was sold for N500,000.
Those who make demands for the handkerchief include herbalists and some prominent Nigerians. The suspects are being interrogated to determine the extent of their involvement and those who patronise them.
Sources told Vanguard that some of the suspects confessed to being mere errand boys. They added that grinding stones were the weapons used in killing their victims by cracking their skull because it ensures the efficacy of the money rituals. Over 30 people have been killed in this way, most of them family members, of which some were children.
The raid was carried out on Sunday after a meeting between the National Co-ordinator of Oodua Peoples’ Congress, Chief Gani Adams, and Onyabo leaders, with security chiefs held in the state on Friday. Areas where the joint raid, led by the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Operations, Edgar Imohimi, were made included Ibeshe, Ita-Maga, Ijede, Ipakodo, Igbogbo/Bayeku and Imota, among others.
The Badoo cultists operate by storming the home of residents during ungodly hours and as the families slept, the cultists would smash their heads with a grinding stone then use a handkerchief to clean the blood and brain before leaving the scene. They usually left without taking any valuables.