Benin City: A stream flowing with street cultism

by Eromose Ileso

Cultism has become a menace to the Nigeria society, but in some places in the country, it is a bigger problem than it is in others. Benin City, the capital of Edo State is an example of where the menace has become an issue that never seem to end. 

In 2014, I wrote a piece that traced the evolution of cultism from the tertiary institutions to the streets in Benin City, and how the credibility that was common place in the streets have given way to cultism. 

Even at that, one prevalent thing about school cultism is that it is largely 'seasonal' in nature in that, rival cult groups most times engage in battle mostly during the end of a school session. This is why it is common place to see that certain final year students that are highly placed in the leadership of cult groups do not live to leave the University as their life is sniffed out from them shortly after their final examinations for deeds they carried out in their earlier years in school. Cases abound where this has happened.

The seasonal nature of school cultism is not cast on stone; something could trigger a disagreement between rival cult members that would lead to a larger problem at any time during a school session. However, with street cultism, it is never seasonal, it can happen at any time of the year, it does not matter what time of the year it is really.

At different times in 2015, the killings between different cult groups in Benin City was so high that it took the intervention of the then Inspector General of Police Solomon Arase who is from Benin City, Edo State to stem the tide. 

The IGP came down hard on the leaders of the groups as officers from the Force Headquarters in Abuja came to arrest several leaders of the rival cult groups in Benin City. Some of those arrested had association with highly placed individuals in government. Some police officers were not spared in the clamp down as those that have association with the cult groups were arrested. While some were taken to Abuja, others ended up in Lagos. 

The clamp down was so serious that even Divisional Police Officers (DPO) could not release on bail those that were in the Divisional Police Stations. But despite these arrests, there is/was little or no evidence of anybody that was charged to court, most of them eventually got out of detention on police bail.

That singular act by the IGP brought about a thaw between the cult groups as there was a sudden peaceable sphere that pervaded the landscape of Benin City as an unusual serenity descended on the horizon. Even you could hear some of the cult members giving cryptic signs via hush tunes that indeed they have been able to move around freely without fear that they would be attacked. Whether it was a Manfight, Eiye, Bucaneer, Black Axe and/or Jurist cult member, the intervention brought about by the IGP was something they all welcomed.

And it should be noted that one reason why the IGP’s invention was swift was because he understood the terrain as well as the various networks in the City. 

His intervention was reminiscent to that of retired (Deputy Inspector General) DIG Parry Osayande’s posting to Benin City as Police Commissioner of Old Bendel State in 1986 by military president, Ibrahim Babaginda to deal with the robbery menace of Lawrence Anini and his gang. Again, this was possible because Parry Osayande knew the terrain because he is from Benin City.

However, that thaw that was brought about by the intervention of the IGP later disappeared as the killings soon resumed. That undercurrent that is always there triggered another spate of killings. In the Evboneka Community of Benin City, there were killings almost on a daily basis, with a complete disregard for the sanctity of human life.

On Tuesday, January 26, 2016, the Edo State Police Command arrested and paraded over 46 cult members including those that were on their way to sniff out life out of a rival cult member. They had earlier been informed by a friend that their target was at Urokpota Hall, at Ring Road, so the two of them proceeded with a back pack to their destination, but fortunately, they were accosted by the police at Ring Road who searched their bag and discovered two firearms and a axe. It was at the parade, they narrated what they were on their way to do, before they were arrested. However, others that were targeted to be killed have not been as fortunate as they have met their untimely dead by a design they fostered on themselves.

At various times throughout 2016 and as well as 2017, there have been different spate of cult related killings. There was one particular case that was very bad. It happened in the Ikpoba Hill area of Benin City in February, 2017. A rival cult group went to the home of a rival to pull a hit, when they got there; their target was not at home. Instead they ended up beheading a sibling of their supposed target.

Street cultism in Benin City has become so bad that involvement cuts across every facet of the fabrics of the City. Artisans, electronic dealers, Technicians, ordinary persons and other group of persons are deeply involved. Primary and Secondary school students are also involved. 

Most of them join these cult groups willingly, while some end up there through peer pressure and at other times they are initiated into the cult groups by their friends. And the multiplier effect of this involvement in cult groups is that there is the domino effect of armed robbery. Those who are not engage in any productive venture, will end up being involved in kidnapping, armed robbery, rape and extortion. And one of the reasons why they engage in these social vices is that they have to pay dues to the cult groups they belong to. These dues are paid the way members of any association pay their dues. As a result, most of them go to any length to get the necessary money to pay the dues.

The reason why the rate of street cultism is on the high side in the various suburbs and communities in Benin City is something that was extensively dealt with in this piece of 2014.

But it would be unfair to claim that the menace of cultism in particular and street cultism in general is something that is a problem only in Benin City. All over the country, it is a problem that has eaten deep into the fabric of the Nigerian Society, It is everywhere. But a major difference between cult memberships in the supposedly high class is that there is this esprit de corps between them irrespective of the fraternity they become to, whereas, in street cultism, any fault lines and tensions from existing undercurrents result in killings.

There is a clear respect of hierarchy amongst the high echelons of this cult groups, but in street cultism, there is seldom respect as such, anybody can use a personal disagreement outside to initiate a spate of killings as there is always a loose chain of command, that is why these killings are so prevalent.

With the way the menace of street cultism is shaping up, it would take more than just the usual practice of arrest and parade by the police for it to be curtailed.

Something drastic has to be done to address the issue. For now though, the killings through street cultism continues unabated.

Benin City: From the Ambience of Street Credibility to the ambush of Street Cultism

Benin City: From the Ambience of Street Credibility to the ambush of Street Cultism by Eromose Ileso

The streets of the ancient city of Benin the capital of Edo state, old Bendel state and the Former Mid Western Region used to be a place where serenity reigns to a certain degree. It was a place where healthy competition for educational achievement was the pursuit of majority of the youths especially in the days when the Bendel and later Edo state Library Board was still a semblance of a library. 

In the different locations where these libraries were, there was a striving verve for a pursuit of excellence through studying. A case in point was the library located in the suburb of Okhoro. This library aided in shaping the educational destinies of various youths that lived in this area of the city when it was still functional. And many including this writer could attest to that fact. The library had two sections: a general reading section, and also a section that housed different books on various subjects.

It was easy then to see youths who after their daily school activities would proceed to the library after their domestic chores. The place was a Mecca of some sort especially during examination period. It was a place for the serious minded and the indolent. They all converged to do justice to their books. The indolent eventually ended up being influenced by the positivism of the serious ones who saw reading and studying as a tool to unravel the miseries of their life.

Besides the library, there was a striving artisan industry which was a glowing way by which those who could not cope with school education either by reason of finance or their inability to cope with the rigours of education. 

Those in this category where able to build a profession for themselves in the areas of being involved in carpentry, welding, mechanical, electrical , technical works, fashion designing  and learning the trade of buying and selling in different goods. It was easy to see those involved in this taking to it as a duck takes to water. It was a case of verve and fervour from those who found their way to this part of the divide in whatever circumstances it was that took them there.

In a nutshell, the library and artisanship were avenues through which youths and teenagers alike could channel their energies for the improvement of their lives.

Another very important tool that many used to occupy themselves besides education and artisanship was sports especially football. There were several known centres that were breeding grounds for emerging talents to display their skills. Areas like Iyaba Street in the Suburb of New Benin where the playing field inside the popular third cemetery was a field akin to the theatre of dreams. And it was from there the dreams of footballers like Yakubu Aiyegbeni were realized. That field today now houses a health centre and a wood processing industry. But, it still being used for football. AmbroseVansekin remains a regular visitor to the field.

Sadly the library and many other things highlighted above that were avenues through which youths could occupy themselves have all been confined to the vehicle of historical oblivion where the scenario now is a case of replaying the cards of nostalgia.

Although, there were remote and immediate causes which made things to go bad. 

Two significant issues accounted for why things have nosedived.

Firstly, the military administration of Adamu Iyam in 1994 and 1995 made several government agencies to be self sustaining without funding from the government. This complicated policy affected the running of the library board in Edo state. They could no longer sustain the previous template and several of its complexes were closed with workers going unpaid for months. The collapse of the library system in the state gradually eroded the reading culture prevalent in the past and a vacuum began to emerge and the spare time the youth had had to be spent one way or the other.

Besides that, the massive retrenchment carried out by that administration affected the growth of education in the State. A particular teacher known to this writer eventually resorted to selling wood and planks to keep life moving and that’s what that teacher still does till date.

The collapse of the school system brought about an educational vacuum that affected the psyche of students and teachers alike.

The vacuum spilled over and of major significance to the present state of affairs in the streets of Benin was the domino effect of what transpired in a particular institution in the city several years ago.

The Vice Chancellorship of Professor Aburime Anao of the University of Benin embarked on a policy of public renunciation of cultism from students who were members of different cult groups with an incentive of amnesty granted to them.

This policy while novel in outcome at the time it was implemented eventually led to a vacuum just like the vacuum created by the collapsed educational system, and the only way this vacuum could be filled was via the streets. The streets became a breeding ground where willing and unwilling youths were recruited and inducted into various groups as activities in different campuses scaled down due to the public renunciation.

Today in most suburbs of the city, you could easily see all categories of people involved in this social menace. From primary school students and to the rampant activities of those in secondary schools where students go as far as holding teachers and the entire school to ransom. Even those in the artisanship cadre are heavily involved in it. The menace is more serious in some suburbs in the city than others.

An instance is the suburb of Uselu. Which happens to be a cathedral of street cultism where there is always an under current that flows like a time bomb which when ignited inevitably leads to nearer to thee I have come.

The present state of most youths and teenagers in the city is no longer a case of going to library after school or on weekends, combining school with artisanship or attending lecture houses whose retainer where to sharpen the skills of students. 

Rather the situation now is a case of bickering amongst youths. It is on record that cult related killings amongst youths are now rampant in the streets especially when there is a supposed ‘war’ between rival cult groups. Then you would easily notice that many would completely go into hiding and the streets suddenly become hollow for a while. When the tension dies down, those that initially disappeared into thin air would make a return like a whale that initially went into the deepest part of the ocean.

The libraries and competent lecture houses which hitherto served as avenues of transformation have been replaced by mushroom private schools and lecture houses whose main calling is to perpetuate examination malpractice in various forms and shapes.

In the areas of artisanship, the fervour from apprentice of yesteryear have been replaced by inertia and slothfulness with the get rich syndrome now the crave of the moment amongst youths. Practically nobody wants to engage in the act of artisanship in the present times.

The effect of this state of affairs in the ancient city of Benin has reshaped many lives. The past festive season also witnessed the killing of several youth as a result of the same cult activities with the police making several arrest.

It is difficult to gauge whether such a menace can be tamed for the simple reason that it is a complicated network of passages that involves many people even to the top echelons of the society.