- Sexually molests, attacks female minors, old women
- Victim needs N300, 000 for recto-virginal surgery
Could the unidentified mythical notorious serial killer, Jack the Ripper, generally believed to have terrorised the largely impoverished areas of the Whitechapel District of London in 1888, have resurrected in a Lagos community?
But while the original Jack the Ripper had made female prostitutes, living and working in the slums of the East End of London, his target, cutting their throats and mutilating their abdomens, these devil reincarnates in Lagos attack the very old and young children without any justifiable reason.
They, unidentified like Jack the Ripper and popularly called ‘Badoo boys’, have lately been unleashing terror on residents of some communities in Lagos State, raping, injuring and even killing some of their victims.
The group’s modus operandi, which is basically cult-like, has no regard for the old and the young as they have been alleged to have raped even octogenarians and minors on several occasions, especially at night.
Findings by The Point revealed that the ‘Badoo boys’, who do not cover their faces, go about their notorious operations in the night naked with black oil poured all over their bodies to make them very slippery for anyone to hold down.
The members of this group of serial rapists and killers are said to be on the wanted list of the police and other law enforcement agencies.
Recently, no fewer than five persons were attacked and fatally injured by the ‘badoo’ boys, with some of these victims losing their lives in the process. Among the surviving victims of this violent group are two minors, Adesewa Adegbite and Marvellous Mba. The children’s parents are now seeking financial help from well- meaning Nigerians to enable them to pay for surgeries, following the injuries they sustained during their ordeal in the hands of the ‘Badoo’ boys.
Adesewa Adegbite
For little Adesewa Adegbite, life may not be the same again, owing to the harrowing experience she had in the hands of one the members of the deadly cult group.
Little Adesewa, who is now left at the mercy of well-meaning Nigerians to go through the second stage of recto vaginal surgery, fell victim of the ‘Badoo’ boys recently. They inflicted life-threatening injuries and sexually molested her. The incident took place in her parents’ church at Ibese in the Ikorodu area of Lagos.
The assailant had sneaked into the church in the dead of the night while the members, who had just concluded a vigil, were taking a nap, picked up little Adesewa, who was sleeping beside her parents and ran away with her into a nearby school building, where he raped her and left the girl almost dead.
The Point gathered from a resident at Ibese community that no fewer than five victims were recently attacked and molested by members of the same cult group.
“Over the last weekend, a Badoo boy struck again at Oluwoye community in Ibese, hacked and raped a woman at Ilaje. He goes around our community; he doesn’t stop in a particular place. He has operated in Oke-Ota, where he raped and killed Alaba Grace, a 28-year-old married lady nursing a 6-month-old baby. He has also raped an 81-year-old woman, another 72-year-old woman and others. He is a serial rapist and killer that has been tormenting our community for over a year now. And the government and security agencies are pretending they don’t know what is going on,” he said.
Speaking on the incident involving little Adesewa, he explained, “The little girl’s case was so pathetic that we all vowed to kill this demon if we got him. If you see the young girl you will cry. She was abducted from the church before she was raped and beaten mercilessly. And I keep wondering the reason for doing such a thing to an innocent little girl, even in the church”.
The guardian of the little girl, Mrs Elizabeth Obayomi, told our correspondent that due to the unfortunate incident, Adesewa had now become traumatised, adding that she no more felt safe with anyone again.
“I am the guardian of the little girl. She is now affected psychologically. She doesn’t talk to anybody. If you want to touch her, she will cry because she no more feels safe in anyone’s hand. As I am talking to you, she and her parents are in the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, for treatment before she goes through the second stage of the surgery they recommended for her due to the severity of the damage that was done to her while being raped,” Obayomi said.
On Badoo’s persistent attack on the residents of Ibese community, she said, “This community is almost consumed by these evil people, and government seems not hear our cries for over a year that they have been invading this community. It won’t surprise you that as far as they are concerned, you don’t have to do anything before you are attacked.
“Badoo is a serial rapist and killer. Victims don’t do anything to warrant the attack. They just pick the victim and go after them. This girl went to church with her parents for a night vigil. And because of the security situation of the community, they were told not to leave the church immediately after the service. So, the parents had to stay back with other people. They were sleeping in the church around 4am, when he went into the church and picked the little girl and took her into a school building close to the church, brutalised, raped and left her there to die. But as God will have it, she didn’t.
“Apart from Adesewa’s case, there is another little girl of 8 years, named Marvelous. They inflicted several injuries on her head when they attacked her grandmother. The girl raised alarmed when she saw them trying to forcibly rape her grandmother of about 74 years old.
Adesewa needs help
The parents of little Adesewa are now soliciting for financial help from well-meaning citizens to enable them to pay the bills for the second phase of the surgery recommended for her (rectovirginal surgery), following the injuries inflicted on her during the attack.
The current situation, our correspondent gathered, has forced the father of the little girl, Gbenga Adegbite, to put up some of his property for sale. “Life has not been easy for us in the family since my daughter was raped and brutalised by Badoo. We have spent all our savings on her treatment in hospital. She has gone through various treatments that cost us huge amount before the first operation, which also cost us a lot. As it is, she is expected to go through the second phase of the operation which is recto-virginal surgery, and we do not have the financial capacity to bear this. That is why we are appealing to Nigerians to help us financially.
Adegbite, who gave 3023971968 Adegbenga Adegbite, First Bank as his account details, said his little daughter would require the sum of N300,000 for the next phase of the surgery.
The mother of the victim, Temitope Adegbite, while appealing to Nigerians for help, also called on government and the police to save the residents of Ibese community in Ikorodu from the ‘Badoo’ cultists.
Marvelous’ case
Meanwhile, The Point’s check on Marvelous, another minor who was attacked by one of the Badoo cult group members last month, revealed that the little girl’s case has become pathetic as she is now psychologically unbalanced.
Sources from the little girl’s family hinted that her unstable psychological condition started some days ago while she was undergoing a medical operation to remove some of the tools used to balance her jaw that was cut with axe by the Badoo assailants.
The process, according to her, has affected the little girl to the extent that she’s now psychologically unbalanced.
“As I’m taking to you, her situation is not really better because she just went through a minor operation, during which they removed the things they used to hold her mouth. And due to this, she has been crying a lot because the pain is too much for her and she’s just behaving abnormally,” she said.
The source, who didn’t want her name mentioned, also said, “the condition of the little girl has put her mother and family in big trouble.As I am talking to you, Marvelous’ father is threatening to take them to court over what happened to the girl. He said they forcibly retrieved the girl and her mother from him in their Northern home because of the fear of Boko Haram, but now, they have exposed the little girl to more horror than the Boko Haram they were afraid of”.
The mother of the seven-year-old victim, Joy, who said the family was in dire need of financial support to stabilise her daughter’s condition, told our correspondent that her daughter had not been psychologically balance due to the bad experience.
“With the situation of things, we got her a psychologist to help to put her in shape because she has not been behaving normal. And as it is, what we need is financial support to help because we have spent a lot and we will still do because she is not alright yet,” she said.
Recalling the ugly incident, Joy explained, “On that day, she was with my mother, Francisca, in the same apartment. The man came in through the back window because I slept in the sitting room. He passed through the back window and went to where they were sleeping, covered mama’s mouth with white handkerchief and tried to suffocate her before stabbing her. Then when my daughter saw him and tried to shout, he held her mouth and when he saw that she was dragging with him, he stabbed her in the head and jaw with a long axe.
Marvellous will, therefore, require your widow’s mite to regain her psychological balance. You can send in your donations to Account number 0007704654, Union Bank, Francisca Ogieagah. Joy, however, denied reports that her mother was raped by the ‘Badoo’ member.
Meanwhile, the Lagos Police Public Relations Officer, Dolapo Badmos , said a suspected member of the ‘Badoo’ cult group had been arrested and charged to court.
When Badmos was informed about the group’s last operation in the same community, she promised to get back to our correspondent but never did as at the time of filing this story.
However, last Tuesday, a suspected member of the group was arrested by members of a community’s security operatives in the Ibese area of Ikorodu.
The suspect was arrested while allegedly attempting to mark a house they had planned to attack later that night. A resident of the community said, ”As God will have it, one of those evil people was arrested this evening. He was trying to mark a house where they will operate this night and people caught him.
At first, he was lying, but when he was beaten very well, he confessed that he is a member of Badoo group, who came to mark a house at Kith and kin Street in Ibese”.
The suspect, who is yet to be identified by name, has been handed over to the police at Area ‘N’ Command, Ipakodo, Lagos.
