Residents of Lokoja, the capital of Kogi State, have called on the state government to check the activities of cultists in the town.
Representatives of Kabawa and Sarkin Noma communities made this known during a recent town hall meeting organised by the Justice Development and Peace Commission (JDPC) in Lokoja.
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and community leader from Kabawa community, Alhaji Suleiman Baba Kamata decried the activities of cultists which has become a cause for sleepless nights in the area.
The community leader explained that the community becomes unsafe in the night as cult activities reigns supreme in the area with reckless abandon.
He stated that the menace is growing without signs of abating in foreseeable future as more youngsters aged 15-20 keeps joining cult groups in the community.
He blamed parents and guardians who continue to undermine efforts made by the community to get the boys arrested by security agencies. He said parents rally support for these gangsters and get them bailed from police custody when they get arrested.
Corroborating Alhaji Kamata’s submission, a youth leader in Kabawa community, Wali Abdulrahman Wali, said their major problem at the moment is the spate of insecurity caused by cult related activities.
He challenged security agencies to move into action to curtail the excesses of cultists in the community.
Wali noted that the cultists are not ghosts as their identities are well known to members of the community.
“We know them. We can identify them.
“One of them was arrested recently but got bailed by family members. He returned to the community and started boasting that he will continue to cause mayhem,” he said.
Stakeholders at the town hall meeting agreed that insecurity in these communities poses a serious challenge to sustaining the progress achieved in the JDPC’s advocacy for improved access to portable water supply, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in the recent past.
JDPC legislative focal person, Comrade Idris Miliki, called for improved security in these communities to ensure the sustenance of WASH services.
He tasked the communities to design localized security measures to mitigate the levels of insecurity.
