Police Arrest 11 Suspected LAUTECH Students Over Alleged Cult Plot in Ogbomoso

The Oyo State Police Command says it arrested 11 suspected members of the Eiye Confraternity and recovered firearms during an operation that foiled a planned cult attack in the LAUTECH community. 

Command spokesperson said Friday that credible intelligence indicated members of the group had gathered at hideouts in Under-G, Yuako and Adenike areas of Ogbomoso to coordinate attacks. 

Acting on the tip, operatives of the Violent Crime Response Unit, VCRU, stormed the locations and disrupted the alleged plot before it was carried out, police said. 

The command said the 11 male suspects were taken into custody. All of them are students of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH, according to police. 

Police said the suspects allegedly confessed during preliminary interrogation to being members of the Eiye Confraternity and were linked to several cult-related crimes, including murder. 

The suspects were identified as Adedapo Victor, 24, alleged leader; Taiwo Rasheed, 22, alleged second-in-command; Emeka Isaac, 20; Akande Segundo, 26; Akande Julius, 26; Stephen Opeyemi, 24; Fortune Abel, 22; Oluwatunmise Ayodeji, 22; Adigun Oladimeji, 32; Akande Moses, 28; and Karim Khalid, 20. 

A search of the suspects and their hideout yielded four locally made cut-to-size pistols, 11 live cartridges, one expended cartridge, two cult axes, one cutlass, one dagger and a red hooded cap, police said. 

Commissioner of Police Abimbola Ayodeji Olugbenga commended the VCRU operatives, saying their intervention prevented violence in the university community. 

He said the command will sustain its crackdown on cultism and that efforts are ongoing to arrest other fleeing members. The suspects will be charged to court at the conclusion of investigations, he added. 

Olugbenga urged residents to provide timely information to security agencies, saying public cooperation is critical to tackling cultism and violent crime in the state.