Two students of Ekiti State University (EKSU) have been sentenced to three years imprisonment for involvement in secret cult activities.
The convicts, Akintunde Olumide and Oladapo Olaoluwa, committed the offence on July 13, 2013 at a hotel at Iworoko-Ekiti, according to the police prosecutor, Femi Falade. Falade said the accused confessed to belonging to the Black Axe group during interrogation.
He added that while investigating the case the police found in the custody of the cultists a small machete, black T-shirt and black trousers. Prosecution counsel called four witnesses to prove his case, while the defendant’s counsel invited three.
In her ruling on Wednesday, Justice Mosun Abodunde of the Ekiti State High Court said the prosecution had proved a case of secret cult against the convicts beyond reasonable doubt. Abodunde held that the short machete could not be compared with the one used for agriculture or for weeding.
She said: “It is not a tool for education; it is a weapon of danger and incriminating, which should not be seen within the school premises.”
The judge described a cult group as a group whose membership are kept in secret, committing or inciting violence, encouraging the disturbance of the peace.
Abodunde also said that the exhibit recovered from the accused made the case weighty. She consequently found the two guilty as charged and convicted them accordingly, without an option of fine.
