UPDATE ON LASU MURDERS AND CULT WARS : Three More LASU Students killed As Damoche Is Buried : Police Comb Hideouts, Arrest 50 Suspects

Following the gruesome murder of Damilola Ibrahim Olaniyan, a.k.a Damoche, by cultists at LASU (Lagos State University) on Thursday, reprisal allegedly took place that evening and reportedly continued till the following day. By the time the late musician was buried in the early hours of Saturday in Badagry, three more students, believed to be cultists, were allegedly killed in gruesome manner. 

The three corpses could not be identified as of the time of going to the press, the social media were awash with gruesome photographs of corpses said to be those of rival gang members who killed the artiste. It is believed that one of the dead cultists shot Damoche on Thursday. 

But as Olaniyan was being laid to rest, members of the rival cult, are suspected to have killed him, were threatening more attacks, even after he was buried. 

In response to a story carried by The Eagle Online on Friday, a member of the rival cult, who identified himself as ‘Shameful To Be A Nigerian’, said one of Olaniyan’s friends, Alo, who vowed to revenge his killing, would also be killed. 

A candlelight procession was later held at 6 p.m in honour of the late singer after the burial. 

Damoche was allegedly shot dead by suspected cultists at LASU main gate in Ojo.

  

No fewer than 50 suspects has been arrested by the Area E Command of the Lagos State Police Command, under the command of the Area Commander, Dan Okoro, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, in connection with the death of late Damilola Damoche, a 400 level student of the Lagos State University (LASU).

The deceased who was nurturing his singing career was shot dead last Thursday by suspected cultists in front of the school gate, arousing fear of a reprisal attack from the opposing faction.

The 25-year-old final year student of Banking and Finance who has since been buried was said to have been murdered in cold blood barely minutes after he had written a test in his class.

With the murder, the command had pledged its commitment to seeing justice done. From preliminary investigations and intensive surveillance, an intelligence report was gathered by the police who set out to comb the hideout of the suspects and proceeded to make some arrests.

Although efforts to confirm the arrests from the state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Ngozi Braide, proved abortive, THISDAY yet gathered that the arrest was to reassure members of the public that the matter has not  been swept under the carpet as claimed in some quarters.

However, police sources who spoke on strict conditions of anonymity, told THISDAY that the command was not taking the murder lightly and is out to ensure that the culprits are brought to book within the ambits of the law.

The source however debunked the rumours that made the rounds over the weekend which claimed that a reprisal attack by an opposing cult group had claimed the lives of some students of the university.

The alleged reprisal attack might have not be unconnected to the gory pictures that was circulated all over internet showing a yet-to-be identified person whose brains were supposedly shattered by a bullet.

THISDAY gathered that the suspects had been transferred to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Ikeja, under the command of the Officer-in-Charge, SP Abba Kyari, for further investigation.