The wave of cult-related killings and violence sweeping communities across Lagos State has reached a breaking point, demanding urgent collaboration between the police, parents, and community leaders, reports UTHMAN SALAMI
Residents of some communities in Lagos State now live in palpable fear, as a wave of cult-related killings sweeps across the state.
From the busy streets of Lekki and Ebute Meta to the creeks of Ikorodu, from the inner lanes of Mushin to the family compounds of Meiran, there is rarely no news of gory murders, heinous assaults, or violent retaliation. In less than 10 days, at least 10 persons were confirmed brutally killed in cult-related violence.
A teenage boy resident in the Mushin area was among the innocent residents whose lives had been cut short by the latest spate of attacks.
In the past, cultism, as it was commonly understood, occurred mostly inside higher education institutions.
However, recent events and police arrests indicate that the threat is rapidly spreading into the streets, where vendors, barbers, and vulcanisers are joining the deadly cult in large numbers.
Deadly fights that were only seen on varsity and polytechnic campuses have now become regular occurrences in communities that had been relatively peaceful, with killings being openly spiralling into places of worship, football fields, and even family homes.
Severed human limbs have now become prized trophies for these deadly groups, flaunted like the Champions League cup, while human lives are tallied as casually as goals in a football match.
Speedboats, once relied upon by residents to shorten long journeys and manoeuvre Lagos traffic, have now been repurposed as tools for criminal gangs to launch violent attacks on many Lagos communities.
Despite repeated police crackdowns, the menace persists, and while the state police command insists it will not kowtow to pressure, the wave of violence shows no sign of ending or abatement.
Riverbank killings
Three persons were brutally murdered during a masquerader festival that began on Sunday, August 31, in Lagos Island.
Some members of the family involved in the festival, who are also believed to belong to various cult groups in Lagos, hijacked the event and turned it into a supremacy battle.
“We had just finished the festival when a fight broke out among some boys suspected to be cultists. And before we knew it, they had started throwing bottles at one another while also wielding some dangerous weapons.
Nobody could even wait to calm the situation other than to run for cover,” a resident who did not want to be mentioned because of the sensitivity of the incident, narrated.
Videos of the chaos captured scenes of heavy gunfire as suspected cultists chased one another through Lagos Street.
In one clip, at least five shots rang out, while a mob of no fewer than 10 men was seen brutally assaulting a victim.
The bloodshed did not end there. On Wednesday, September 3, 2025, another tragedy unfolded when five bodies washed up along the Oreta riverbank in Igbogbo, Ikorodu.
While some residents claimed the victims drowned, others told our correspondent that cultists ferried them in speedboats before executing them. What no one disputed was that the killings were deliberate cult-related.
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