Three suspected Lagos cultists arraigned

Three suspected members of a cult group, the Aiye Confraternity, were on Friday arraigned by the Lagos Police Command for being part of violence that engulfed the Iwaya area of the state on May 14.

 The defendants, Tunde Akinyele, Gbolahan Ojelabi and Charles Onwuka were arraigned before a Yaba Magistrates’ Court presided over by Magistrate O.Y. Adefope.

They were arraigned on four counts of breach of peace, public fighting and damaging of property.

The prosecutor, Haruna Magaji, told the court that the defendants engaged members of a rival cult group in a fight on May 14 around 4am at Onituere Street, in the Iwaya area of the state.

According to Magaji, the defendants, during the violence unleashed on the area, damaged the front windscreen and side glass of a Honda Accord car, 2015 model; with number plate EPE108HP; a Toyota Camry car, with number plate KJA653HA; a Toyota Tundra, with number plate LSR235SM; and a Toyota Corolla car with number plate DR500APP.

Magaji said the offences contravened Sections 411, 68(d), 54, 3 and 50 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, Nigeria, 2015.

The charge read in part, “That you, Tunde Akinyele, Gbolahan Ojelabi, and Charles Onwuka and others still at large on May 14, 223 around 4am at Onutuere Street, Iwaya, Lagos, in the Lagos Magisterial District did conspire to commit felonies to wit; and malicious damage and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 411 of Lagos State, Nigeria, 2015.”

However, the defendants pleaded not guilty to the offences preferred against them.

The magistrate, Adefope, granted them bail in the sum of N500,000 each in like sum with two responsible sureties.

He however ordered that they be remanded pending when they will fulfil their bail terms.

He adjourned the case till June 16, 2023.