By AMINAH ADEGOKE
Home owners and residents in Ikorodu area of Lagos state have started fleeing their homes following the rising threat of the killer-cult group known as Badoo.
Individuals and families in different parts of the town were moving out with some of their personal items to find safety elsewhere. The fleeing residents, who are afraid of being the next victims of the deadly gang, have been moving in with relatives and friends in relatively safer parts of Lagos.
A resident of Ori-Okuta in the Agric area of Ikorodu, said the cult group had written a letter to their neighbourhood that it would soon visit the place. The woman, who gave her name as Yemisi, said she was moving out of the area to stay with her sister at the Ojota area of the city for some time.
She said, “For the past five days, we have not slept at night at Ori-Okuta because of the fear of Badoo. They wrote a letter and pasted the copies at strategic places in the neighbourhood, informing us of their imminent visit. Nobody has had peace since then.
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“My husband is not in Lagos for now, so I cannot afford to take chances with the safety of my children and I.”
A community leader in the area, who identified himself as Alhaji Kazeem Lawal, told National Daily that since receiving the threat letter from the group, those of them remaining in the neighbourhood had organised themselves into clusters to patrol the area at night.
He said that even though many houses had burglar-proof windows and steel doors, they were not taking chances as according to reports, Badoo members cut such iron protections with saws after blowing a powdery substance into apartments to make occupants to fall asleep.
Lawal said, “Since the police have failed in tackling Badoo, we have to take charge of our security. It is true that many residents have fled their houses because they don’t want to die and nobody blames them; those of us who are still here cannot just fold our hands and say nothing will happen.
“We have formed ourselves into several groups, patrolling the entire neighbourhood at night. If you come to Ori-Okuta at night, you’ll think it is day time because the number of residents you would see outside will surprise you. We put our hope in God.”
The gang had killed no fewer than 29 persons and injured several others in the last few months.