‘They Smashed the Heads of Their Victims with Grinding Stone’: Badoo Cult Gang and Victimization Experiences in Lagos State

Introduction

The article interrogates the victim selection, victim experiences and modus operandi of a violent cult-gang popular called Badoo which operated from 2016–2018 in Lagos State. In doing this, we argue that criminal behaviour occurs in space based on neighbourhood factors and victim vulnerabilities. This is important for understanding gang members and their use of spaces in launching violent attacks and victimizing their targets. This brings to the fore how the environment permits criminal behaviour and selection of peculiar targets. Through their mastery of the environment and target selection, the Badoo cult gang were able to unleash terror, victimize their targets and impose fear in the minds of residents. Unlike other known violent cult gangs, the Badoo cult gang did not use guns in its operation; its weapons were the pestle, mortar, grinding stone and white handkerchief. Existing works on Badoo cult violence in Ikorodu have probed into how the gang affected the socio-economic landscape of Ikorodu, the costs of the violence and the response to it. ² Our article contributes to the knowledge on this gang by focusing on victimization experiences that unpack how targets are selected and the coping strategies with Badoo violence. Understanding this contributes to the gang literature on use of space and target selection. It will also contribute to improving environmental design and aid crime-prevention efforts through the narration of victims and the understanding of their selection and what contributes to such.

According to Usman, ³ Lagos has over 10 cult gangs with dominance in different areas of the city. These are as follows: One million boys (Ajegunle), Fadeyi Boys group (Fadeyi), Akala boys’ group (Mushin), Nokia Boys (Surulere), Shitta Boys (Bariga, Oworonsoki, Shomolu and Palm Groove), Awawa Boys, (Dopemu, Agege, Ogba, Iyana-Ipaja), Aiye and Eye confraternities (Okomaiko, Badagry and Ajah), Koko cult group (Ipaja and Ayobo) and Arobaga and Eiye who are battling to control Satellite town. However, there was a deadly cult group, Badoo cult, that dominated Ikorodu area of the Lagos megacity and was noted for killing its victims under mysterious circumstances. The available works on the operation tactics of Badoo and its victim selection strategies are scant. What is mostly available are media reportage on the activities of the dreaded group who operated violently between 2016 and 2018 in Ikorodu area of the megacity.The Badoo gang surfaced in Nigeria’s crime lexicon on 5 June 2016 when suspected members of the gang attacked and raped a 27-year-old Ghanaian who later died. ⁴ Between 5 June 2016 and 1 January 2018 the Badoo ritual gang was responsible for the series of killings that had a similar pattern—killing of victims by smashing their heads with a grinding stone while their blood was wiped with a white handkerchief, usually taken along during their operations for ritual purposes. This handkerchief was reportedly sold at N500,000 for one. ⁵ Drawing its victims mainly from the Ikorodu area in Ikorodu local government area of Lagos State, the gang killed no fewer than 30 persons ⁶ but the nefarious activities of the gang have only been privileged by media reportage and less of empirical interrogation into their operations and strategies for victim selection and victimization. Considering the fact that 36.08% of national crimes occur in Lagos State ⁷ and with over 10 cult gangs identified to be in control of different ‘territories’—destroying properties, stealing, and extorting residents and killing resulting from rival cult clashes—it is important to understand gang behaviour in spaces and how they select their targets uniquely. This is because violent cult gangs have become a common phenomenon in contemporary Lagos State with each gang dominating different areas of the state. In 2019, 202 gang members were arrested between February and June. In 2020, police in Lagos arrested 195 cult gang members while 397 were arrested between January and September of 2021. ⁸ This article is sectionalized into four parts: the first section examines the nature of gangs from the literature; the next section presents the theoretical underpinning of the study; the third follows expatiates on the methods of data collection and analysis, and the final section discusses the findings and conclusion.

Nature of Gangs

Violent youth gangs dot most urban landscapes in Nigeria and operate in neighbourhoods. Their activities have lethal implications on human communities. While they are similar in age composition and use of drugs; they differ in their modes of operation, victim/target selection, symbolic identification, slang usage, restricted code categorization and routine activity, among other defining indicators that set them apart from other conforming members of the public. They are dreaded and feared owing to the consequences of their actions and the merciless nature of their victimization of law-abiding citizens. While violent youth gangs are ubiquitous in Nigeria, Salaam ⁹ specifically identified the ‘yandaba’ boys in Kano State, Ofio boys in Port Harcourt (Rivers State), ‘Agaba’ boys in Rivers State and ‘Ecomog’ in Borno State. Salaam ¹⁰ stated that most gangs comprised of unemployed youth just like the popularly called ‘area boys’ in Lagos State. Researchers ¹¹ have also worked on the factors influencing the enlisting of youths in violent gangs. These studies implicated large family size, rural-urban migration, poverty and unemployment. Others ¹² have also characterized gangs as having features such as slangs, nicknames, gang solidarity, drug use, street fighting and alcohol consumption among others. Usman ¹³ reported that cult gangs recruit from primary and secondary schools, while minors are initiated and introduced to other forms of criminality including pickpocketing and burglary. Furthermore, this media report stated that some of these recruited minors are either lured or forced to become members of cult gangs in Lagos State. Onyegbula ¹⁴ stated that ladies are lured into cult gangs through dating and, after establishing trust, may be assigned roles to spy on rival gang members or security operatives. Similar roles are assigned to minors as ‘tenders’ or as spies ahead of operation, and moving up the gang hierarchy may involve killing at least three persons during rival cult clash.

Criminal gangs deploy ritual activities in their operation for some purposes. Oyewole ¹⁵ investigated kidnapping for ritual and how it threatened security. The study found that kidnapped victims are used for money-making rituals. Evidence of spiritualism abounds in the social, economic and political life of Nigerians. ¹⁶ Ritualism is seen as a means of solving communal and individual’s life problems. Ritual killings has accentuated the tension of insecurity of life and has reduced the value of sanctity for human life.

There are often reports of missing people or mutilated bodies with critical body parts such as heart, breasts, genitals, tongues and eyes, among others, missing. ¹⁷ When such incidents are reported, money ritual comes to mind. It is believed that humans offer sacrifice in expectation of good fortune, fame, success, favour, power, protection and greatness, ¹⁸ and this involves the use of charms, magic and blood, amongst others. ¹⁹ Rituals may also be oriented towards solving societal problems. ²⁰ Ritual performance is embedded in Nigerian movies where, for instance, a poor person performs a money-making ritual to become powerful and influential in society. ²¹ This mediated reality could be said to be one of the contributory factors influencing money-making rituals in Nigeria. This perhaps explains in part why there have been many reports concerning ritual killings in Lagos, ²² Rivers State, ²³ Nasarawa and Ado-ekiti ²⁴ and other states.

In his study on the fusion of mystical powers to aid cybercrime success, Tade ²⁵ argues that ritual-for-success is an everyday reality in the social, economic and political life of Nigerians. This may not be unconnected with the fact that people who believe that the source of their problems are spiritual tend to consult and contract mystical powers to stabilize the instability facing their businesses. ²⁶

Tracing the origin of cultism in Rivers State, Amadi et al. ²⁷ note that leaders of violent cult gangs were previous cultists who railroaded their previous structures into emancipation and liberation struggles in the State. Osaghae et al. ²⁸ attests to the presence of violent cult gangs in Rivers State, with mode of operation, membership and initiation rites performed in secrecy. While affirming the presence of violent cult gang in the South-South geo-political zone of Nigeria, Nche, Wachkwu, Nwaoga, Mokwenye, Agwu and Alagboso ²⁹ explored the experiences of churches on the insecurity created by violent cult gang in Rivers State. They accounted for the disturbing activities of different violent cult gangs that unleash violence on the Rivers State landscape, killing and destroying properties. Although there are more than five violent cult gangs, scholars have isolated the Icelanders and Greenlanders as the two notorious violent cult gangs whose activities terrorize the State. ³⁰ These scholars use their studies to document how inter-cult violent clashes have led to killing of innocent persons and threatened the peace of the state including the church. Their activities take place mostly in demarcated streets or neighbourhoods like the Badoo ritual gang in Ikorodu.

Umar, Johnson and Cheshire ³¹ assessed the spatial concentration of gangs in Kaduna state and concluded that urban crime is concentrated in particular locations in relation to crime types. Cult violence in Lagos State takes place in marked spaces and socially disorganized neighbourhoods. Oh, Ren and He ³² note that the presence of youth gangs in neighbourhoods contributes to the fear of crime and portray such neighbourhoods as insecure. Since they have location-based operation and violence, they contribute to the development of residence-based fear of crime. ³³ This is connected with the experiences of persons in such area and the perception of disorder by those outside the reference location. What is apparent from the aforementioned is how criminal gangs carry out their operation and select who to victimize. This is the gap this study filled.

Defensible Space and Routine Activities Theories

To be able to explain the activities of ritual violent gang of Badoo in Ikorodu, we synthesized Defensible Space theory ³⁴ with Routine Activities theory. ³⁵ The defensible space perspective offers insight into how spaces, delineated as private and public through symbolic and physical layout serve as markers of territoriality. Newman ³⁶ believes that social spaces can be manipulated to discourage criminality and victimization. The defensible space theory has influenced policy interventions aimed at environmental design and crime prevention. ³⁷ Also, its utility in explaining how the social organization of neighbourhoods, streets and individual houses can contribute to crime prevention or escalation is not in doubt. This theory is anchored on three vital components: territoriality, natural surveillance and image. According to Newman, ³⁸ territoriality is ‘the capacity of the physical environment to create perceived zones of territorial influences’. Zones of influences would include marked public, private and semi-private spaces. This is done using real and symbolic markers of territories, which send a signal to external users of space that certain places are private and the others are public. Fencing, burglary-proofing, locks and walls, among others, are some of the ways of demarcating real physical barriers to reduce victimization and fear of crime in residential areas. In other words, for a particular environment to be safe, there must be barriers put in place to disrupt movement between public and private spaces by users. It is this demarcation, according to Newman, that brings with it a sphere of control that ultimately regulates the conduct of users of such spaces.

Another element in the defensible space theory is natural surveillance, which is the capacity of the physical design of an environment to provide surveillance opportunities for residents and their agents. ³⁹ In other words, the way houses are built and designed can provide opportunity for natural surveillance. However, in an area where houses are built in isolated places with little or no physical barrier, criminals may be attracted and may explore such areas for criminal opportunities. The last element is the image, which has to do with how a particular area is viewed by criminal opportunists and by residents. Areas with negative image is prone to criminal victimization, while areas with positive image of security will experience reduced criminal victimization.

Territoriality, natural surveillance and image may however not be sufficient in explaining why gang violence occurs in Ikorodu without interrogating how routine activities of residents and spaces illuminates the importance of attractive target, motivated offender and (in)capable guardianship in explaining crime victimization. Put in another way, the routine activities of people as propounded by Felson and Cohen ⁴⁰ is a function of the convergence of the attractive target, motivated offender and the lack of capable guardianship. We therefore fuse these theories to show that the selection of attractive targets by the Badoo ritual gangs is a function of the negative image of the neighbourhoods attacked. These neighbourhoods are isolated, usually neglected and lack capable guardianship. Understanding the routine activities of spaces and actors in victimized spaces of Ikorodu unpacks the centrality of territoriality, image and natural surveillance in crime escalation or de-escalation. Fusing the two theories helps to explain how criminal understanding of vulnerable spaces and targets contributed to criminal victimization of murdered victims of the Badoo ritual gang in Ikorodu communities.

Methods

The study employed exploratory research design and was carried out in Ikorodu, Lagos State, in Nigeria. Ikorodu is a big town that comprises many communities ruled by Baales (village heads) answerable to the King of Ikorodu. It was purposively selected for the study because the activities/attacks of Badoo lasted for about two years in the community; between 5 June 2016 and 1 January 2018. ⁴¹

For data collection, we utilized secondary and primary sources. We used the video of a press conference done by the then Lagos State Commissioner of Police Edgal Ihmohimi to generate insights on the outcome of police investigation, arrest and interpretations of the activities of the group. Another secondary source used was newspaper reports on the activities of Badoo. Primary data emerged through interviews conducted with Ikorodu residents from five communities—Agbowa and Mosafejo Agbowa, First Gate, Odogunyan, Oshorun community and Ogijo (a very close town to Ikorodu). These communities were chosen purposively because each of them recorded the attacks of the Badoo gang. Participants were reached through snowball and purposive techniques. In all, 20 in-depth interviews were conducted with three traditional rulers (one each from Agbowa town, Mosafejo Agbowa and Bashorun community), three religious’ leaders (one Muslim and two Christians), the leader of the vigilant group in Ikorodu who performed very vital roles in arresting some Badoo suspects and 13 other participants who live in close proximity to houses that were attacked by members of the gang.

An interview guide was developed, and it probed into views of participants on the Badoo cult gang, experiences about their operations, victim experiences, target selection, coping strategies adopted and policing. Before carrying out the interviews, we obtained oral consent from research participants. The interviews, which lasted about 30 to 45 minutes, took place at shops and residences of participants. The IDI guide was structured to probe into the meaning of the name of the group, characterize their victims and understand how their operations were organized or executed. Data from the newspapers provided incidences of attacks while the interviews were transcribed. After transcribing and checking for accuracy, codes were developed to form themes around ‘social construction of the Badoo violent cult gang’, ‘target selection and mode of operation’ and ‘timing and killing’. In what follows, we present the thematic analysis of our findings.

Target Selection and Mode of Operation

To unpack target selection and the mode of operations of the gang, we utilized visual materials of the Lagos State police commissioner during the parade of some members of the gang, in-depth interview with the residents and vigilante head who participated in the operation, and community leaders. The residents provided valuable insights into the neighbourhood and target selection and other activities associated with the gang. This is explained under the following sub-headings.

Discussion of Findings

This study contributes to the literature on the activities of gangs globally and the modus operandi of a violent ritual gang, Badoo, in Lagos metropolis. This is uniquely different from the work of Matusitz and Repass ⁴² who examined the Muslim youth gang Yan Daba in Northern Nigeria. While the motive of Yan Daba gang was to impose Shariah for the Nigerian state (with their influence into the realm of politics), the Badoo violent gang was a ritual gang with a different modus operandi.

By triangulating defensible space theory and routine activities theory, we integrated the two theoretical perspectives to illuminate how neighbourhood characteristics help the reading of defensible spaces from the perspectives of residents and vulnerable spaces from the Badoo ritual gang members. Reynald and Elffers ⁴³ had inspired scholars to link the two theories to underscore the importance of routine activities on the realization of defensible space. They argue that the feedback from the three interactive mechanisms (territoriality, natural surveillance and image/milieu) of a defensible space co-create a space that is either defensible or indefensible.

To select targets for their ritual murder, the Badoo gang works with insiders to provide insight into territoriality, image and community surveillance. Deploying an insider to collect data on public and private demarcated spaces, characteristics of neighbourhoods and routine activities, the gang’s insiders not only extract surveillance information useful for criminal victimization but also create loopholes in the residents’ natural surveillance. Put in another way, just as a defensible space holds that natural surveillance could enhance residents’ control over their spaces, natural surveillance is also utilized by outsiders through the use of compromised insiders to provide information about their environment. The more outsiders are able to utilize this same space with insiders, the more the area becomes open to victimization. ⁴⁴ It is therefore important to explore how natural surveillance data is processed differently by a motivated insider-offender and residents. This ‘enemy-within’ who understands how the community’s geography is structured could expose the communities to ritual/gang victimization.

The study showed that the processing of information supplied by the surveillance mounted by the insider helped in narrowing down on households to victimize based on the understanding of the routine activities and the defensible spaces as well as vulnerable spaces. Fundamentally, both defensible space and routine activities postulate that crime will occur when there is a convergence in time and space of suitable targets, the motivated offenders and the lack of capable guardianship. It follows, therefore, that in selecting their targets, they consider isolated structures where there is weak guardianship, poor or non-existent surveillance, bushy environment, short fences and incomplete structures, among others. Some of these characteristics give the environment a negative image, making it vulnerable to ritual murder. It shows that the environment impedes (residents) natural surveillance and only allows the Badoo ritual gang to work on the routine of the victims to carry out their violent ritual murders. Indeed, this finding aligns with previous studies ⁴⁵ that noted that perceived disorders such as the presence of youth gangs and abandoned buildings, among others, could precipitate residence-based fear and signal to criminals that such a neighbourhood is insecure. Evidence abound that perception of community insecurity escalates fear of crime and communal social control. Indeed, Gau et al. ⁴⁶ found that people will only be concerned about personal and family safety in areas with social disorder.

The strategy used for gaining entry and perfecting the smashing of the heads of their victims also resonate with one of the strategies used in colonial Ibadan where thieves utilized charms to cause their targets to fall into deep sleep before carting away their properties. Fouchard ⁴⁷ observed that charms used by the thieves were those that prevented people from waking up and those that prevented the burglars from being arrested. Their timing of operation (1am–3am) affirms their mastery of the routine activities of potential targets in relation to lower guardianship at such times. They combine this after assessing the territoriality at the neighbourhood, street and individual levels. It is argued that if the territoriality is high at the neighbourhood level, it is unlikely that the Badoo gang will proceed to select their targets from that neighbourhood. Put together, the activities of the violent ritual gang Badoo unpacks the importance of territoriality, natural surveillance, image, attractive target and capable guardianship in having a defensible space or indefensible space for gang operation.

Conclusion

Violent cult gangs as a global phenomenon are a regular feature in Nigeria, and Lagos State in particular. While studies have examined crime and ritual in relation to kidnapping, politics and cybercrime among others, scant attention has been paid to how neighbourhoods and routine activities can be used to understand the modus operandi of the Badoo cult gang that troubled Lagos megacity between 2016 and 2018. In doing this, we probed into the meaning of ‘Badoo’ and their operations (target selection, timing and smashing of head).

The findings show that the gang worked through an insider who provided information about the targets and the neighbourhood before they launched their operations. Data on modus operandi also unpacked a sequential format to their attack. After obtaining the required information about the target to attack, the gang members would visit the shrine to swear an oath before going for the operation. The targets were people in the low social economic strata living in sparsely populated flats, single rooms or distant and bushy neighbourhoods in Ikorodu. The gangs blow powdery substance, which makes the targets go into deep sleep, break into the houses through the window—usually with the help of a chemical—before smashing the heads of the male head of the household before moving to other members of the household. A white handkerchief was then used to wipe the blood for ritual purpose.

Understanding the modus operandi of the Badoo cult gang through the triangulation of the defensible space and routine activities theories show how important territoriality, image and natural surveillance, and accessibility and capable guardianship are to the realization of defensible and/or indefensible (vulnerable) spaces. It is apparent that it is unlikely that criminals will select victims from a neighbourhood with high physical and symbolic markers of territoriality and capable guardianship. Regulating access into a neighbourhood will restrict outsiders’ use of private spaces, while it is important for housing planning in disordered neighbourhoods to utilize physical and symbolic territoriality and to enhance capable guardianship. In such neighbourhoods, uncompleted buildings are a threat to security while a bushy environment that may impede natural surveillance should be cleared. Isolated houses may compromise the security of neighbourhood and make inhabitants of those structures easy targets. To enhance social control, it is important to strengthen the synergy between Nigerian police and local vigilante groups as this approach was what eventually ended the reign of terror of the Badoo cult gang in Ikorodu.