By Olakunle Olafioye
IsraelOlusanya looked forward to starting a new day with vigour after a tiring but eventful day on Monday, May 29. The 46- year-old father of three had retired with his family early enough to their home on Olaiya Close, Erunwen, Ikorodu in anticipation of a restful night.
As a fish farmer, his daily routine started and ended with tending the fish in the ponds sited behind his residence and to keep records of the progress made on the fish ahead of harvest.
But just at the wee hours of Tuesday, May 30, a major tragedy which claimed the lives of four of the five members of the household befell the family. Unknown to the Olusanyas, agents of death had marked their home for their dreadful operation which sent the fish farmer, his pregnant wife, Rukayat and two of their children, Wale Olusanya, 11 and six-year-old Semilore Olusanya, to their early graves, while their eldest child, Tolu was left for dead.
The horrendous assignment was carried out without any telltale to their neighbours about the tragedy that had just befallen the Olusanyas until a colleague of Rukayat from the school where she worked as a teacher decided to check on her after repeated calls to her mobile line went unanswered.
The timely visit of Rukayat’s colleague saved the life of the eldest child of the Olusanyas, Tolu. The 15-year old who was battling for survival when help suddenly came was rushed to Lagos Teaching Hospital after sustaining a life threatening injury.
Although the perpetrators of the murderous act left the scene several hours before the crime was discovered, residents were able to point accusing fingers at members of dreaded badoo gang, a new cult group that has been terrorising communities in Ikorodu in the last one year.
Statistics of horror
The Erunwen tragedy of May 30 was one of the latest of the series of similar attacks allegedly perpetrated by the group in the last one year.
The reprehensible activities of the gang date back to July 2016 when people suspected to be members of the gang raped a 60-year-old Ghanaian identified as Francisca and brutalised her eight-month old daughter.
This incident was followed by a more horrendous attack on a family in Oluwoye community on October 21, 2016. The gang reportedly attacked a family, killing a pregnant woman identified as Afusat Yusuf, her husband, Kazeem, while their two children were injured.
Two months after the killing of the Yusufs, the gang again reportedly struck on Saka Adegbose Street on December 26, 2016, where they killed two siblings, Azeezat and Abeeb Oriade.
Again, three siblings were killed by people suspected to be members of the cult group on March 1, 2017, on Masafejo Street, Agbowa, Ikorodu, while similar havoc was wrecked by the gang on April 11, 2017, when a family of three was wiped out in Ibeshe Tuntun, also in Ikorodu.
A couple, Taofeek and Simiat Agbaje and two of their children also met their untimely death in the hands of people suspected to be members of the deadly group on May 4, 2017 when the gang stormed their residence at Adamo, Imota area of Ikorodu.
Most recently, members of the gang killed three persons inside a church at Owode- Ajegunle along Ikorodu on Tuesday, July 4. The cultists were said to have attacked Crystal Church of Christ (C&S) Aladura, at 4, Victoria Anibaba Street, Owode Weighbridge, along Ikorodu Road. Eyewitness account revealed that the assailants killed one woman and the two girls during the attack.
Gang’s modus operandi
From Ibeshe-Balogun to Agbowa, two of the communities where the horrendous activities of the reprehensible group were first recorded, reports of the dastardly acts of the gang came with a myth of mystiques laced with the trappings of rituals. But recent developments seem to have demystified trappings of invincibility woven around members of the gang.
Until recently, members of the gang were said to have gained entry into the abodes of their victims mysteriously without using the e
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