Two suspected gang leaders of the Awawa cult, in the Dopemu area of Agege, Lagos State, who are siblings have been disowned  by their father who urged the police to prosecute them. Two suspects, Fatai Popoola and Yakubu Popoola were arrested by the Lagos State Taskforce on Environmental and Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit, Alausa, on Friday.


Apart from 27-year-old Yakubu and 30-year-old Fatai, the police also arrested 13 other suspected members of the gang identified as Ajayi Babatunde, Ajose Anthony, Nurudeen Adebayo, Olayemi Lasege, Afeez Sanusi, Oluwafemi Ajibade, Opeyemi Oluwasola, Oluwatobi Adewunmi, Sunday Akerele, Timothy Ogar, Actor Amaechi, Jimoh Sanni and Owolabi Adediran, Punch reports.

The suspected members of the Awawa cult had dispossessed people of their property and raped young girls in the Aluminum Village and Valley Estate areas of Dopemu.

A police source said the cult boys had attacked the police but were overpowered and arrested. “The arrest of the 15 Awawa cult members was based on a tip-off. The Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, had got several complaints about the Awawa cult and he directed the taskforce Chairman, SP Olayinka Egbeyemi, to arrest the hoodlums. The operation was carried out around 12am. The hoodlums attacked the policemen with weapons, but in the end, they were overpowered.”

It was learnt that the father of two of the suspects, identified only as Alhaji Popoola, told the police that he had given up on them and the law should take its course. The 66-year-old father was at the taskforce office, telling the police that he came to tell his sons that their end had come.

He said, “I have warned the two of them several times to desist from gang activities, but they refused. I am shocked that I have two sons among the suspects arrested by the police. They are no longer my sons. I only came as a disciplined man to tell the two of them that their end has come. I think it is a lesson to wayward children to always heed their parents’ advice.”

The Public Affairs Officer of the taskforce, Adebayo Taofiq, confirmed the arrests.