By Ikugbadi Oluwasegun
Over 48 members of various cult groups in Ogun State have renounced membership and surrendered their weapons to the Police on Tuesday.
The former cult members took advantage of the amnesty initiative by the Ogun State Police to submit weapons which includes 1 pump action gun, 4 double barrels, 7 single barrels, 2 English pistols, 4 locally made pistols, and 35 cartridges.
According to press statement issued on Tuesday by Omolola Odutola, Public Relations Officer of Ogun State, she said, As traditional rulers and community leaders collaborate with the police to make headway for peaceful coexistence.
We need more young persons to field legitimate means of income, according to Alamutu Mustapha, Commissioner of Police who was in Sagamu to mop up dangerous arms from the possession of young persons.
The Commissioner of Police who noted that some young persons joined social negative vices out of peer pressure, intimidation and and fear of being killed.
Young persons in Sagamu Ogun State surrendered their operational weapons under the Amnesty initiative of CP Alamutu Mustapha.
It has become common ground to include more stakeholders in crime fighting as a form of Community Policing to ensure all hands are on deck to access a wide range pool of information to reach out to the youths out there to embrace legitimate means of income, instead of engaging in criminality, which projects a negative impact on the larger society.
Today the 26th of March 2024, at about 1200hrs with the assistance of the traditional ruler of Sagamu, the Akarigbo of REMO land has prevailed on youths with arms and dangerous weapons to surrender them under the Amnesty window of the Ogun State Police Command, CP Abiodun Alamutu, and further follow the process of denouncing social negative vices.
The CP stressed further that the Command would not be rigid about the window of amnesty opened to the youths who were compelled into joining various cult groups, as the ample opportunity is still open as long as they keep coming forward to denounce their cult groups .
He sounded a note of warning to any cult member who declined this opportunity to denounce their membership now, that they would be treated as a criminal if being caught later.
Looking inward, the CP also assured not to display Remoland and other community leaders in Sagamu, for using dialogue to impress on cultists to shun criminality and promote peace.”
