The father of two sons – Fatai Popoola and Yakubu Popoola , who were arrested by the police for being cult leaders has disowned them, telling the police to ensure that they faced the full wrath of the law.
The young men were among 15 members of the notorious Awawa Cult, who were arrested in the Dopemu area of Agege
by the Lagos State Taskforce on Environmental and Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit, Alausa, on Friday.
The 30-year-old Fatai and his 27-year-old brother, Yakubu, were arrested alongside 13 other suspected members of the gang identified as Ajayi Babatunde, Ajose Anthony, Nurudeen Adebayo, Olayemi Lasege, Afeez Sanusi, Oluwafemi Ajibade, Opeyemi Oluwasola, Oluwatobi Adewunmi, Sunday Akerele, Timothy Ogar, Actor Amaechi, Jimoh Sanni and Owolabi Adediran.
They were alleged to have dispossessed people of their property and raped young girls in the Aluminum Village and Valley Estate areas of Dopemu and also attacked some police officers who had gone to arrest them.
A policeman on the team that made the arrest was quoted as saying, “The arrest of the 15 Awawa Cult members was based on a tip-off. The Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, had got several complaints about the Awawa cult and he directed the taskforce Chairman, SP Olayinka Egbeyemi, to arrest the hoodlums.
The operation was carried out around 12am. The hoodlums attacked the policemen with weapons, but in the end, they were overpowered.”
The father of the two cult leaders identified as Alhaji Popoola, reportedly told the police that he had given up on them and the law should take its course.
The 66-year-old father, it was learnt, had visited the taskforce office to see the boys for himself and allegedly told the police that he came to tell his sons that their end had come.
“I have warned the two of them several times to desist from gang activities, but they refused. I am shocked that I have two sons among the suspects arrested by the police. They are no longer my sons.
I only came as a disciplined man to tell the two of them that their end has come. I think it is a lesson to wayward children to always heed their parents’ advice.”
One of the suspects, 30-year-old Sanni, alias Last Born, from Okene, Kogi State, confessed to be a leader of the gang, adding that he had raped five women in the course of their operations.
He said, “The person who brought me into the Awawa cult stays in Oloosha, Mushin area and his name is Olata. I lead the Awawa boys in Dopemu.
“Some of my boys also sell Indian hemp at pubs and nightclubs. They sell for as low as N100 and we take Indian hemp before going for any robbery operation.
“I have raped about five girls in the area. My boys and I collected N3,000 every day from shop owners in the Dopemu area. We burgled shops in Aluminum Village.”
The Public Affairs Officer of the task force, Adebayo Taofiq, who confirmed the arrests, enjoined on Lagos residents to provide police with necessary information on cult to nip their nefarious activities on the bud.
