By Lukman Olabiyi
Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has declared war on cultism with the singing of the bill for the Prohibition of Unlawful Societies and Cultism of 2021 into law.
According to the bill signed, the offence now attracts 21-year jail term for convicted cultists in the state.
The governor stated that the state would no longer tolerate any act of criminality, warning parents ato cautions their children .
The State’s House of Assembly, in February, passed the anti-cultism bill, which also stipulates 15-year- jail term for anyone found guilty of abetting cultists and residents who willfully allow their properties to be used as meeting points by cultists.
Sanwo-Olu assented to the bill at the swearing-in event for newly appointed members of the state’s public procurement agency governing board and two permanent secretaries held at Banquet Hall in the State House, Alausa, yesterday.
At the event, Sanwo-Olu ,also signed three other bills into law. They are Lagos State Audit Service Commission (Amendment) Law of 2019, Lagos State Public Procurement Bill of 2021 and Coronavirus Pandemic Emergency Law of 2021. The anti-cultism law repeals the cultism (Prohibition) Law of 2007 (now Cap. C18, Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2015) and provides for more stringent punitive measures, as well as makes its application all-encompassing and applicable to the general public, as against the restriction of the previous law to students of tertiary institutions.
