Eight suspected cultists and drug peddlers have been arrested at Kogi State Polytechnic, Lokoja.
The Director of Public Relations and Protocol at Kogi State Polytechnic, Lokoja, Uredo Omale, disclosed this in a statement sent on Wednesday morning.
Omale explained that the joint security team of the institution, on Tuesday, July 16, 2024, arrested three students of the institution and five others suspected to be members of a secret society and drug peddlers during the ongoing second-semester examination for the 2023/2024 academic session.
According to the statement: “The apprehended students who are all of HND II in the Department of Business Administration include: Ajayi Oluwaseun Oladipo (Matric No. 2022/HND/BUS/275), Isenre Elijah Ayomide (Matric No. 2022/HND/BUS/146), and Omonijo Sunday (Matric No. 2022/HND/BUS/181).
“The arrested five non-students who are all from Ekiti State but based in Abuja are: Otitoju Christopher, Babatope Ayomide, Isaiah Babatunde, Shina Ayodeji, and Makinde Olalekan.
“The arrest of the suspects was a result of proactive measures put in place by the management of the institution to checkmate the infiltration of cultists and other outlawed groups and individuals who were reported to be planning to enter the campus with guns and other dangerous weapons in connivance with some cyber-crime suspects popularly known as Yahoo Yahoo.
“Their intent, it was gathered, was to cause harm to their targets and commotion on the campus during the ongoing second-semester examination.
“This was in the guise of their end-of-examination graduation ‘celebration’ rituals, which the management had earlier banned due to security concerns.
“In the build-up to the ongoing second-semester examination, the Polytechnic Management got intelligence reports that some bad elements suspected to be involved in cybercrime, cultism, and illicit drugs had perfected plans to import their members from other states and institutions to cause mayhem on the campus.
“To prevent the occurrence, management decided to intensify further security strategies by banning all forms of end-of-second-semester examination celebrations on the campus in whatever guise.
“This decision was duly communicated to the students through a circular issued by the Chief Security Officer, containing the outlawed activities during and after the examination.”
“The Polytechnic Management started observing dangerous signs on Monday, July 15, 2024, when the Department of Public Administration HND II students wrote their last paper.
“The management got an intelligence report of the infiltration of some notorious old students of the 2018/2019 set who are suspected to be cultists, alongside some imported mercenaries from Edo and Delta states, who came that day to cause mayhem using the style of a motorcade, spraying of naira notes while sitting on their vehicles on the highway.
“In the process, there were gunshots from the direction of ‘Always Petrol Station’ adjacent to the Polytechnic main gate, where the imported mercenaries were allegedly camped since the campus was not comfortable for them because of the security measures put in place.
“To prevent a repeat of the Monday incident, more security strategies were deployed ahead of Tuesday, July 16, 2024, when the HND II students from the Departments of Accountancy, Library and Information Sciences, as well as Business Administration, were scheduled to write their final papers.
“It was the security arrangement and tip-off that led to the arrest of the three students and their hired mercenaries who claimed to hail from Ekiti State but are based in Abuja.”
Items recovered from the apprehended suspects include two cars: a light green-coloured Mercedes Benz Saloon with Reg. Number EKITI STATE “MUE-598-AE” and a black colored Toyota Lexus Saloon with Reg. Number from Ebonyi State “SKA-78-AE”, different types of drugs, remnants of some naira notes amounting to N14,000, a beret cap with a symbol suspected to be that of a cult, and an MP3 player.
The Rector of the Polytechnic, Prof. Usman Salisu Ogbo, commended the Joint Security Team and the Intelligence Team for a job well done through teamwork for nipping the dangerous intent in the bud.
The eight suspects, according to the institution’s spokesperson, have been handed over to the B Division of the Nigeria Police for further investigation.