By Olakunle Olafioye
Foremost Ifa priest, Chief Yemi Elebuibon, has called on traditional rulers in Ikorodu land to explore traditional solutions to the incessant bloody attacks by suspected ritualists known as Badoo gang.
Speaking in a telephone interview with Sunday Sun, Chief Elebuibon charged the traditional rulers in the area to explore traditional solution to the problem.
According to him, “when things like this happen in Yoruba land where there is a traditional ruler, the king and his chiefs would hold a meeting and invite the chief priest of that land to consult Ifa oracle on the way out of the problem.
“The affected community will have to perform a sacrifice. The Ifa corpus that emerges will explain what should be done. But if the occurrence continues unabated, the divination and sacrifice would not be a one-off thing; they will have to make a special sacrifice which will repel the evil warriors, because those behind things of this nature are evil warriors.
“That was the practice in the ancient Yoruba land and this is exactly what should be done now,” he advised.
Ikorodu has been under the siege of the criminal gang, which in the last one year has unleashed terror in communities in and around the area, raping and killing their victims in the most horrendous manner.
The most recent of the killing spree by the gang claimed the lives of four members of a family of five on Tuesday, May 30.
Unidentified hoodlums suspected to be members of the Badoo cult group had stormed the family’s residence at Olaiya Close around Letter N Junction, Radio Area of Erunwen, Ikorodu, killing a 46-year-old fish farmer identified as Israel Olusanya, his wife, Rukayat and two of their children Semilore and Wale aged 5 and 10 respectively.
The victims were found dead in their apartment with a bloodstained pestle suspected to have been used on them by their killers.
The eldest child of the family, Tolu, was said to have been rushed to hospital when members of the community were alerted to the dastardly act hours after they were attacked.
The gang was believed to have employed almost similar method in wrecking havoc in Ibeshe in June 2016, when a Ghanaian woman was raped and killed while her eight-month old child was injured.
Almost a month later, a 60-year-old woman identified as Francisca was also killed after she was being raped while her daughter was injured.
On October 21, 2016, the gang reportedly attacked a family in Oluwoye community, killing a pregnant woman, Afusat Yusuf. Her husband, Kazeem, and the couple’s two kids –Rodiat and Opeyemi – were injured.
On December 26, 2016, the attackers struck on Saka Adegbose Street, killing two siblings, Azeezat Oriade and Abeeb Oriade.
On March 1, 2017, Badoo members attacked a family on Masafejo Street, Agbowa, Ikorodu, killing three siblings between ages four and nine. Their mother also died.
On April 11, 2017, a family of three was wiped out in Ibeshe Tuntun by the gang.
On May 4, the suspected ritual killers wreaked havoc on a family of six in Adamo, Imota, in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State. They killed a couple – Taofiq Agbaje and Simiat Agbaje – and two of their four children, Rodiat and Toyeebat.
However, despite the recurrence of the attacks security operatives, according to residents, have not been able to unmask those behind the killings just as many residents accused traditional rulers in Ikorodu of insensitivity.