The police on Monday arraigned three suspected members of a secret cult, which allegedly planned to rob Mission Street in Amukoko, Lagos State, during its initiation activities.
Joseph Augustine, Taiwo Mudashiru and Adam Ndubisi, aged 29, 26 and 34, respectively, were charged before a Yaba Chief Magistrate Court.
The defendants, alleged to be members of an unlawful society called “Arobaga”, however, pleaded not guilty to a two-count charge of conspiracy and membership of an unlawful society.
The prosecutor, Modupe Olaluwoye, told the court that the defendants committed the offences at 1.00a.m. on July 18, on Mission Street, Amukoko.
According to Olaluwoye, the defendants were arrested alongside 10 other men and one woman.
The prosecutor said that they were apprehended by the Anti-cultism Unit of the police during the group’s initiation process.
Olaluwoye told the court that the defendants planned to launch a robbery attack on Mission Street as part of the process. “My lord, cutlasses were recovered from two of the defendants, while ammunition was recovered from the other suspects yet to be arraigned.
“During interrogation, they confessed to their plan and mentioned the name of their leader as ‘paw-paw’.
“Some of them including their leader, however, escaped during the raid,” she said. The alleged offences contravene Sections 411 and 42 (a) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015 (Revised).
Section 42 (a) stipulates a three-year jail term for membership an unlawful society while Section 411 provides for two years’ imprisonment for conspiracy.
The chief magistrate Oluwatoyin Oghere granted the defendants bail in the sum of N100, 000 with two sureties each in like sum.
