By Residents of Kirikiri Town, in the Oriade Local Development Council Area of Lagos are currently living in fear over activities of members of the Igunuko Cult who they said have been terrorizing members of their community with their shrine, masquerades, charms and arm thugs.
It was gathered that the leadership of the Kirikiri Community, which include the Alahun of Imore and parts of Apapa, Oba Taoqeef Adegboyega, the ancestral owner of the Kirikiri land and Apapa, the Baale of Kirikiri Town, Chief Babalola Shabi, the traditional head of Kirikiri Town and members of the Kirikiri Community Development Association, had recently, in a joint press conference, called on the Lagos State Government, the State Police Command and members of relevant security agencies to come to their aid and put a stop to the activities of members of the Igunuko Cult, in Kirikiri Town who have been making live unbearable for residents of the community.
They said members of the Igunuko Cult have, over time, moved around the Kirikiri community with their masquerades which are usually armed with charms and thugs bearing dangerous weapons during business hours and they equally bury charms indiscriminately around the community, mostly at homes of people who are not members of their Cult.
It was gathered that Chief Shabi, who has been the Chief Security officer (CSO) of the Kirikiri Community and its environ in the last 30 years, has suffered several harassments and threats to his life, allegedly by members of the Igunuko Cult.
Shabi was appointed and installed as the Baale of Kirikiri Town and parts of Apapa, by the Alahun of Imore and Apapa, Oba Taofeeq Adegboyega on July 20, 2020, after the demise of the late Baale of Kirikiri community, Chief Wahidi Agunbiade, a member of the Igunuko Cult.
Investigations have since revealed that since the demise of Chief Agunbiade, members of the Igunuko Cult wanted one of them, Babatunde Folami who is said to be a native of Bida area of Niger State and not an indigene of the community, to retain the Baale Stool.
This move, according to findings, didn’t go down well with the Oba Adegboyega, the paramount ruler of Imore, Kirikiri and Apapa who preferred an Awori indigene with vast knowledge of happenings within the Kirikiri Community and its security architecture.
A source at the Palace of the Alahun of Imore, who simply identified himself as Ayodele Idowu explained that Oba Adegboyega consulted members of the Community Development Association, CDA, the Kirikiri Elders Foundations, mostly landlords within the community, the youths under the CDA and he asked for recommendation on the right man to serve as the Baale of Kirikiri Town. Upon their nomination, Chief Babalola Shabi was installed as the Baale of Kirikiri Town.
Idowu explained further that members of the Igunuko Cult allegedly got livid when they got news that Chief Shabi has been appointed and installed as the Baale of kirikiri Town and they revered to self-help.
One of their leaders, Adeola Oshunyemi led a group of members of his group to attack the new Baale in his home and they came with two masquerades, charms and sevral other dangerous weapons.
Oshunyemi was also caught on tape while digging a hole in front of Chief Shabi’s house and buried a charm at the spot.
Men of the police station in Kirikiri Town were called in and he was eventually arrested and subsequently charged to court.
Another resident, Yetunde Abdullatif, who spoke to this medium during the media briefing, explained how members of the Igunuko Cult have made residents of the Kirikiri Community — which hosts some of the nation’s foremost correctional centers, oil and gas Deports and container terminals — a hell, as they have continuously made themselves a threat to residents, business owners and the correctional facilities within in the community.
They were said to have recently gone to the home of the Baale of Kirikiri Town, on September, 9, 2021, who is not a member of the Igunuko Cult and they were also spotted at the home one Chief Popoola Martins, a Christian and an elder of the community, who is also not a member of the cult and they dropped a calabash filled with charms at the entrance of his house.
The Baale’s wife, a deaconess at the St. Joseph Chosen Church of God, was said to have died few months after the charms was planted in her residence.
Abdullatif further explained that members of the Igunuko cult have equally turned their shrine located at Cardoso Street in Kirirkiri Town, into a notorious hideouts for criminals. They also allegedly use the site for human sacrifices and other ritual activities, leaving many residents in fear.
He said, “We are currently living in fear over activities of the Igunuko Cult. We are not members of their association and they are not members of the Kirikiri traditional institution. The Igunuko Cult is from Niger State, and owners of Kirikiri Town are the Imores, who have their own traditional practice.
“It is an open knowledge that the Alahun of Imore and Apapa, Oba Adegboyega, the Baale of Kirikiri Town, are not members of the Igunuko Cult, then we see no reason why masquerades should be taking to their homes. Ade Oshunyemi, who led the two masquerade and some armed thugs to bury charms at the home of Chief Shabi, the Baale of Kirikiri, he was arrested by the police and was charged to court, but some senior police officers at the Lagos State Police Command Legal Department are seriously working hard to allow the suspect involved in bury charms around the Kirikiri community that led to the death of the wife of the Baale, off the hook.
“This is very sad, knowing that a senior police officer, who is supposed to uphold the the rule of law, is seriously trying to protect a criminal from facing justice.”
When this medium visited the Lagos State Ministry of Art and Culture, which supervises and grants permissions to masquerade activities in the State, the spokesmen of the ministry, told our correspondent that the Igunuko Cult in Kirikiri Town did not obtain permission from its before carrying out its masquerade activities to the home of Chief Shabi, the Baale of Kirikiri Town and other residents of the community.
Meanwhile, the Police Public Relations of Lagos State Police Command, Benjamin Hundeyin, in his reactions, when contacted, stated that the Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Alabi, has ordered a full investigation into the allegations as well as the incidents, insisting that all culprits involved must brought to book.
