By Alaka And Police Abracadbra By Bello Abdulateef
Two days after the gruesome murder of a family of five, in Oke Ota, Ibeshe, Ikorodu, by suspected badoo gang, the Nigerian Police, came out to tell the general public that they have bursted the shrine of the dreaded badoo gang in Agbowa, a town under Epe division of Lagos.
The video of the raid on the shrine, where ‘chief priest’ or Curator Alaka (permit me to remove Alhaji from his name), took the team of the police, headed by the Deputy Commissioner of Police(Operations), Lagos Command, round his ‘Esielike’ gallery of soapstone images. The only difference is that Esie gallery don’t have objects that drink blood. I am tempted to visit the shrine in no distant future to do a study if the statues are in situ or brought there. The similitude to it was the Abija’s ‘Ile Agbara’ where the Ajan foresaw things. Gone are the good old days of rich cultural home videos.
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The DC, while addressing the press, said the shrine was the most dreaded badoo shrine. Has he been to Okija? I expected that while the police guys were breaking the adjoining doors open, there will be a room where freshly sacrificed human skulls will be kept or fossils of those killed long time ago will be excavated. With that incontrovertible evidence, no agbejoro, not even a Lawal Ibrahim or a Femi Falana(SAN) could have saved Alaka.
Not seeing any of those, I soliloquised that this is another sensational crime bursting, that will die naturally. I may not have been bearish, if the team was led by Askari DC Abba Kyari, Ekun oko Evans, considering his dexterity and deftness in crime bursting.
Truth to my concerns, two days later, another video clips went virile on the social media, where the suspected badoo kingpin, Alaka, an independent oil marketer, keelhauled the police, especially the DC that led the operation. In his words “emi o ki n se badoo . Ori DC operation yen ti gba le“. Another video clip came out, where Alaka was talking in a bedroom, saying he is back in his Magodo residence (are you insinuating that he knows Evans?) . In that clip, he said if truly he was a badoo kingpin, the police would not have released him immediately.
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I am sure the lazy Yoruba movie makers will be scampering to locations to make banal films that they are fond of, out of this drama.
Sorry for the digression. What type of investigation was carried out, leading to the arrest of Alaka? I want to believe it’s not based on a beer parlour talk nor a newspaper stand gossip. Or could it be out of pressure from the public that the police are trying show that they are on the heels of the badoo gang?
The badoo menace isn’t a comedy that both the police and ogbeni Alaka will turn it into an home video thing, that people at Ebinpejo street and upper Iweka road will be selling. My people are being slaughtered and we are not getting help from the government.
Resorting to self help might just be the only option left if this gang of ritualists are not brought to book in GOOD TIME.
Bello Lateef writes for Lagos, Nigeria
