We use Facebook to recruit members, says ‘cult leader’

Precious Igbonwelundu 

 

AN alleged notorious cult leader Maliki Bello, 22, has told detectives in Lagos that his gang recruited members and a planned operations through Facebook and other social media platforms.

Bello, the alleged supreme leader of a notorious cult group in Itire, Lagos, Berry Boys, said the gang’s official page was Bbl Baloteli, a page with 1,928 friends, adding that their targets were school pupils. The suspect who was arrested on February 4, at about 7:20pm by policemen attached to Itire Division, told interrogators he joined the group when he was 12-year-old.

A resident of 23, Ayinla Street, Idiaraba, the suspect told police interrogators he was responsible for series of violent clashes, murders and armed robbery incidents in Idiaraba, Lawanson, Dosunmu, Ashimowo Bakare, Omo-Bola Mushin and Itire.

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“The suspect told detectives that he was initiated into the cult at 12 years when he was in Junior Secondary School (JSS1). He later rose to the number one position, mostly addressed as the supreme leader of the Berry Boys confraternity.

“He was first arrested and then investigation led to the arrest of 11 other suspects. The Commissioner of Police (CP) Hakeem Odumosu has reaffirmed the commitment of the command to address the menace of cultism and youth gangsterism in Lagos State.  “The onslaught on social miscreants launched by the CP is intelligence driven, targeting mostly the leaders of the gangs and blocking the channels through which they recruit young people.

“The Special Strike Force on Social Miscreants has successfully brought under control activities of various cults and gangs in the state through well coordinated and targeted operations. The onslaught will be sustained until they are totally defeated,” said spokesman Bala Elkana, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP).

 

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