Tobias Sylvester 
Twelve minor primary school pupils of Egan community in Lagos State were arrested by the police in Lagos over cult related activities of a cult group known as Awawa.
A joint operation of LNSC Igando Ikotun LCDA and Nigerian police Igando Division led to the arrest of the public primary school pupils.
The minors numbering 12 were apprehended when they were having a clandestine meeting at a secret place within the School premises their age range is within 6yrs to 16yrs.
The pupils have later whisked away from the school premises to Igando police station for further investigation.
According to the police, the pupils confessed to having been initiated by a young 16-year-old girl named Salami Rasheedat, who attends Egan Senior Grammar in Igando, Lagos. They were undergoing training in order to become hardened members in the future before it got exposed.
The arrest which happened last week was disclosed by the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Imohimi Edgal, at the State Police Command. The police boss revealed that two men were also arrested for initiating the Primary School pupils into the cult gang.
The police said it was a Guardian and Counseling teacher at the Egan Community School in Lagos who uncovered the cultists’ initiation ceremony plan. The school comprised of both primary and secondary levels.
The teacher was said to have noticed a particular incision on the lower jaws of some of the students and decided to ask questions about it, to which one of the children confessed that any school pupil or student seen with the mark was a member of the Awawa cult group.
Consequent upon the discovery, the teacher raised an alarm and the school authorities reported the matter to the police.
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal, said that acting on the report, he directed the Gender Section of the Command to investigate the allegation of initiation into an unlawful society affecting 12 children whose ages ranged from 6 to 16 years, the 16-year-old girl being the oldest and only female among them.
Edgal said that during interrogation, the girl confessed that she did take the rest of the children for initiation and that the symbol on their jaws was that of the Awawa Boys.
Two adult suspects behind the initiation are already in police custody and are helping the police investigation. An investigation is ongoing with a view to arresting other members of the Awawa group for prosecution.
