In 1953, future-Nobel Prize winning author Wole Soyinka and a group of six friends formed the Pyrate Confraternity at the elite University College, Ibadan, then part of the University of London.[3] According to the Pyrates, the “Magnificent Seven”(G7), as they called themselves, observed that the university was populated with wealthy students associated with the colonial powers and a few poorer students striving in manner and dress to be accepted by the more advantaged students, while social life was dictated by tribal affiliation
Cult violence claims one in Edo State
A member of a vigilance group, simply identified as Endurance, also known as ‘DMX,’ has been killed by gunmen suspected to be members of a cult group in Benin City, Edo State.
The Guardian Nigeria News
Sahara ReportersThe assailants allegedly trailed the victim from his home to a lottery betting odds on ringroad.com.ng search engine shop, where he was shot three times at a close range, while others at the shop scampered to safety.
The incident, which occurred about 6:00p.m. on Saturday on the Ologbotsere Street, off Benin Technical College (BTC), Ugbowo Quarters, in Egor Local Government Area, left residents in the community in panic.
The vigilance group in the area immediately stormed the crime scene to rescue their colleague, but was found dead in the pool of his own blood.
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Angered by the killing, the vigilance group took to the street in a stop-and-search duty for the killers, but to no avail.
Eyewitness account revealed that the assailants came in two vehicles, a Mercedes-Benz 4matic Saloon car and a Toyota Camry.
It was gathered that the unknown gunmen zoomed off through the Medical Stores/Okhoro Road in Benin City. The corpse of the vigilance group member was later evacuated by the Okhoro Police Division in the area.
The renewed cult violence, in the past one week, has claimed two lives so far in the area following the killing of Augustine Izu, a final-year Political Science student of University of Benin (UNIBEN), who was killed by unknown gunmen hours after writing his final examination.
Izu was trailed to his off-campus hostel on Omage Street, off Federal Government Girls College Road (FGGC), Ugbowo, Benin, by his assailants who shot him dead in his room.
Reacting, some residents decried the killings and condemned the untoward activities of some unscrupulous members of the vigilance group.
A resident, who spoke in confidence, expressed worry over the actions of the vigilance group moving with arms and ammunition as well as shooting indiscriminately at social functions, including birthdays, funerals, and wedding ceremonies, particularly those operating in Benin City.
IN a related development, students living in the UNIBEN Ekehuan campus area, in a chat with The Guardian, called on the state government and heads of vigilance group in the state to caution the Ogbe Quarters Vigilance Group in Oredo Local Government Council Area as they allegedly harass and intimidate residents.
UNIBEN Student Killed Hours after Final Exams
July 1, 2021 9:32 am0
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By Adibe Emenyonu
A final year Political Science student of the University of Benin has been reportedly shot dead hours after writing his final examination.
The student identified as Augustine Izu was said to have been killed last Tuesday after he was trailed to his off campus hostel located at 5, Image Street, off Federal Road, Ugbowo, Benin-city, by his assailants who shot him dead in his room.
According to a source closed to the scene of the incident, the assailants, numbering four, were said to be fully masked-up when they carried out the dastardly act in the presence of the deceased friend, Walter Emeka, who was also hit by bullet in the arm.
In a related development, another student of the institution, Joshua Oginigbo, is also reported to have been shot on same day (Tuesday) by gunmen.
Oginigbo, a student of Computer Engineering, was shot in the head around the June 12 Secretariat on the campus and in a critical condition and receiving treatment at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital.
The shootings according to source were said to be cult-related.
Spokesman of the Edo State Police Command, Bello Kotongs, confirmed both shootings, assuring the people that the assailants are being trailed and would be brought to book.
The exact death toll of confraternity activities is unclear. One estimate in 2002 was that 250 people had been killed in campus cult-related murders in the previous decade,[1] while the Exam Ethics Project lobby group estimated that 115 students and teachers had been killed between 1993 and 2003. However those figures pale into insignificance when compared with recent cult activities in Benin city, the Edo state capital in 2008 and 2009, with over 40 cult related deaths recorded monthly.[citation needed]
In the Niger River delta, confraternities are deeply enmeshed in the conflict in the oil-rich delta. Most of the campus cults have been accused of kidnapping foreign oil workers for ransom, while many of the militant groups, such as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), employ confraternity members as combatants; Soboma George, head of street and creek confraternity The Outlaws, is also a MEND commander.[6]
Campus cults also offer opportunities to members after graduation. As confraternities have extensive connections with political and military figures, they offer excellent alumni networking opportunities. The Supreme Vikings Confraternity, for example, boasts that twelve members of the Rivers State House of Assembly are cult members.[2]