Cult groups in Uniben: A tool for Oppression

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By Abu Onyiani

At about 9pm on March 3rd, 2023, a Uniben student Desmond Obukobo Oghenerukhewe, popularly known as Mayor was shot dead in his hostel room in Hall 3, in what has been described by many as a cult related killing. Photos showed his face was blasted by a gun from close range.

Desmond, who many students described as a kegite, but who the Police according to Ogona Anita of the East West Reporters referred to as a cultist who was killed by rivals has joined the long list of people murdered within or around the University. For example, on November 1st 2019, a popular Uniben student cum hypeman and emcee Moses Ogbornida Adeshina popularly known as Afficionado was shot dead in broad day light during the final year activities by men who wore boots, trench coats and balaclavas.

As an alumnus -class of ’18- of the institution, I witnessed firsthand, the deplorable effects of cultism on and off campus. With next to nothing done by security operatives and the lackadaisical attitude of the school authorities towards cult groups, cultists became regarded as demi gods, who operated even in broad day light, inside the university, oppressing students at will. Up until now, there are areas that have been colonized by these cult groups, and if unlucky to be found walking or studying in those areas at night, you will be disarmed of your valuables.

Many times, issues of cult groups were reported to the school’s security network, they had swept it under the carpet, or advised for a settlement. When the SUG public relations officer Godwin Okafor aggrieved a cult group in 2018, they attacked him in a video that went viral, leaving so many of his followers injured.

Of course, we believe they were sponsored by the school authorities, and these masterminds of criminality often boast with reckless abandon, about how many staff of Uniben are their colleagues in their coven, daring those who want to report them to do so, with a caveat that they do so at their own risk, which is true.

This is not news to anyone who attended Uniben, or most public academic institutions in Nigeria. The first cult groups in Nigeria was formed in a university, like the pyrates Confraternity, which is same as the Black Axe Confraternity that has now become arguably the most notoriously dreaded group in Nigeria, originating from Uniben itself. University authorities claim powerlessness and like to latibulate when confronted with the matter of cult powers in institutions, yet there are instances where the school authorities themselves have been strongly suspected of financing and using cult groups to attack and suppress other students who are likely to cause them problems.

A notable case is what is now infamously known as the Obafemi Awolowo University massacre. A Wikipedia article dedicated to it says “The Obafemi Awolowo University massacre was a mass murder of students of Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria on 10 July 1999. Five students of OAU were killed and eleven injured. It was perpetrated by an organized death squad of 40 members of the Black Axe Confraternity branch at the university. They invaded the Awolowo Hall of the university at around 4:30 A.M., clad in black trousers and black T-shirts, their faces hidden by masks; they carried and used shotguns and hatchets against students.”

The underlying cause of this mindless bloodletting by evil monomaniacs is support, from the school authorities and politicians who employ their roguish pyschoneurotic services. In turn, they allow them recruit fresh bloods and perpetuate their actions, nonchalantly, and without fear of punishment. On school, they smoke weed in public, harass and threaten other students, and are often spineless bullies who are only embolden by the structure of violence and criminality of the organization they are a part of. One would think that because they are students studying in a university of repute, their characters would be refined, but this is far from the reality as they are as uncouth and badly behaved as their illiterate colleagues in towns and villages.

Nowadays, cultism is an entire industry on its own, providing an interconnected militia for drug dealers, traders of illicit and stolen goods, fraudsters and money launderers, Yahoo Boys and Azamen. A Yahoo Boys without the muscle of cult boys behind him may find it difficult to obtain the proceeds of his criminality from the Azaman who picked the money. People who sell weed and drugs also pay weekly and monthly subscriptions to cult groups who in turn allow them run smoothly, and maintain a certain level of decorum, in essence ensuring that the laws of the “Streets” are obeyed. They offer protection against rival cult groups, ensure people are afraid to report their criminal activities to the relevant authorities, and ensure drug addicts, referred to derogatorily as “Charly Patients” pay up in drug debts.

Cultism has become a commercial enterprise in Nigeria, a state sponsored one at that. Many people in government at all levels are currently members of cult groups, and in an Interview with BBC eye, Tony Adun, popularly known as Kabaka claimed Adams Oshiomhole offered Black Axe Confraternity 80 slots for immediate employment by the Edo State government, as part of payments for working for him during the 2012 Edo State Gubernatorial elections. BBC also states that “two documents states that in Benin City, 35 million naira was funneled to the Neo Black Movement of Africa (NBM) to “protect votes and secure victory in the gubernatorial election in 2012”. The same Oshiomhole would be caught on video telling a group of henchmen, amongst whom was Kabaka to suppress and molest Obidients.

This is why I look at claims that the government can easily defeat terrorist groups with myrrh. If the government is yet to defeat the menace of domestic groups of terror, why then do they think they can defeat internationally affiliated organizations who are very much interested in bringing a new world order of theocratic and fascist mental fracas?

It is important that people understand that, without the shadow of authorities and people in privileged positions, cultists cannot find the cover of the darkness that shrouds and mystifies their villainous and antagonistic behaviors. As a matter of fact, until there is purposeful leadership designed and engineered towards ensuring violence is a monopoly of the state, cultism and its attendant immorality will continue to thrive and dismember whatever humanity is left of our academic institutions and society, until we are bereft of any.

In my days in Uniben, cult boys in their early twenties, tolled their fellow students in Ekosodin and Osasogie for different nonsensical reasons, including for hairstyles like dreadlocks. They also bought drinks in other people’s names, took their fanciful gadgets, and barred some from even talking to some ladies.

A university should be a sacred ground for the pursuit of knowledge. I have dozens of friends who were my academic colleagues during my eventful sojourn in Uniben currently studying in Europe, and amongst the things they agree with is, the biggest is often that cult groups have no powers to influence activities in their schools. This is a lesson that must be replicated in Nigerian institutions.

It is a show of shame that professors and administrative veterans in universities still allow boys who are still being fed by their parents to run a parallel government in their institutions, unchecked. Hopefully, one day they will wake up to the realization that the evil they encourage may come back to bite them.

The Nigerian electorates must also begin to frown at politicians who employ these thugs during elections. I was sympathetic to Obaseki because of the manner in which he fell out with Oshiomhole, but after the antics of PDP paid thugs in Edo State during the last general elections, my sympathy is now gone.