...residents now live in fear

There was pandemonium again on Sunday as residents of Adigbe, Oluwo and Panseke areas of Abeokuta continue to run helter skelter around 8:00 pm due to unconfirmed information that a crisis had erupted in Panseke. 

Shops were seen being locked, while hawkers, commuters and motorists on the panseke road were seen running.

Despite police patrol moving around intermittently, the fear of reprisal attack had been on since the killing of a popular area boy, known as Tommy around Oluwo on Thursday night, when he was murdered in cold blood around Panseke, causing tension among residents.

A daily post report revealed that no fewer than seven persons have been killed in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, as cultists had been on  rampage in the past one week where members of the Aiye and Eiye confraternities have been engaging one another in a supremacy battle.

"The killing of Tommy, who was described as a leader of the Eiye cult group, might be in retaliation for the murder of a member of the Aiye group", it was said.

"Investigations revealed that seven persons have been eliminated recently in various places in the state capital".

"Before Tommy was attacked on Thursday, six others had been killed by suspected rival cultists", a source informed.

The source listed some of those killed so far to include “Scatter, School Boy, Alakanni, Tommy, Azeez, Olaosebikan and Babajide.”

They were reportedly killed at different locations like Asero, Kugba, Ikereku, Panseke, Adigbe, Oke Ijeun and Isale Abetu, all in Abeokuta.

“The killings have been going on since last week. Why many didn’t hear about them was because immediately they killed those guys, their relatives carried their corpses without informing the police.

“Everything got to its climax when Tommy was killed because he was a well-known person. Many didn’t believe he was killed not until they saw his picture. The police should continue to restore peace,” a source said on Sunday.

Another source claimed, her dad could not come home as she had to call him to sleep out to avoid the skirmishes going on in Panseke and Iyana-Oloke.

According to her, "we have called our people not to come home, immediately those living around Panseke informed us of the crisis going on in the area".

Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, has confirmed that there were killings in the state within the last one week, saying some people have been nabbed.

Oyeyemi added that the police will now go after the landlords who harbour cultists in their houses within the state, adding that the Commissioner of Police has ordered that such landlords would be charged to court alongside the criminals.

Oyeyemi said, “We have launched a very serious operation on them. We are clamping down very seriously on them.

“About 18 suspects have been arrested during the last encounter we had with them and we are not going to rest until we get the last person of these hoodlums. We cannot be watching anyone making life difficult for the members of the public.

“The Commissioner of police has put on red alert, all area commanders and all tactical team commanders that they should go out and take the battle to the doorsteps of these hoodlums. We must fish them out one after the other.”

Meanwhile, Governor Dapo Abiodun has vowed to deal decisively with anybody fomenting trouble in Ogun.

The Governor said his administration would not allow anybody to disrupt the peace being enjoyed by residents of the state, advising parents to warn their children