A landlord and some other residents gave taken to their heels after a cult group dumped ritual sacrifice in front of their house on Pipeline Way, Arepo, in the Obafemi Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State.
The cult group referred to as ‘Oro worshippers’ had been attacking some residents of the area all in the name of observing a ritual.
The height of the group’s ritual exercise came to fore on Wednesday, June 17, 2015 at about 2am when they gathered in front of the building in question and dumped a big tray of ritual sacrifice there and subsequently threw fetish materials inside.
It was further learnt that the group destroyed some vehicles in the said compound and also threw stones into the rooms of the occupants who scampered for safety.
Speaking about the incident, the landlady, Mrs. Yemisi Falola, lamented that the cultists attacked her daughter while the landlord, Mr. Joseph Falola, on his part disclosed that the family lost property worth about N500, 000.
Mrs Falola said, “We have been living here since 1996 and our house is directly facing the community primary school.
“One of the teachers, called Reverend, and a youth leader, Rasaki Fashina, extended the school field to encroach on the road. They barricaded it with rolls of tyres. The reason is that they usually lease out the field for parties and they make money from the business.
“Because of this, motorists had no road to pass and most times, they have to take the frontage of our house. We called the attention of the community leaders to it, but we were ignored.
“On May 17, about 40 of them came to threaten me in the church. On June 2, I asked an electricity official to erect some poles for me, but they attacked and chased him away.”
The landlady disclosed that she filed a report of the incident at the Ibafo Police Station.
According to her, the police officers took her statements and invited some of the suspected attackers to the station.
Temporary peace reigned until when the community imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew, because of an appeasement ritual, according to Punch.
Narrating the strange incident, a resident said the cultists invaded the community previously and destroyed things.
The unidentified source said, “They were shouting, ‘Oro is carrying firewood, Iya Bukky (Yemisi) come out.’ Everybody was scared. We called the DPO that same night, and he said we should see him early that morning.
“On Tuesday night, they came again and dumped fetish things in front of the house. Today (Wednesday), around 2am, they came again. They broke the windscreen of the vehicle in the neighbourhood and left a big bowl of ritual sacrifice in front of our house.
“They also left behind a flag so that people would know they were the ones responsible.”
The police officers from the Ibafo station were said to have visited the area and arrested one of the cult members, while his friends escaped.
He said the family had already petitioned the Area Commander, Sagamu, and the Ibafo Police Divisional headquarters over the matter.
Contrarily, the youth leader, Fashina, opined that the Falola family were the cause of their problem.
He said, “Their house is opposite a school. The woman of the house, however, wants to do five to six businesses at a time. She sells firewood, mould blocks and all kinds of things.
“We told her to remove her firewood, from the road, which was injurious to the children in the school. But she kept insisting that she had the right of way and there was nothing anybody could do about it.
“Is it possible for this woman alone to be fighting the whole community? We wrote a petition that she should remove all the obstructions on the road, but she refused.”
Meanwhile, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, described the incident as a religious conflict.”
