Abstract
Violent cult gangs are ubiquitous in Nigeria, with their activities threatening peace and security wherever it occurs. While there are many violent gangs in Lagos state, not all carry the appellation of violent ritual gang like the Badoo cult gang that operated in Ikorodu, Lagos State between 2016 and 2018. This study examines the victim selection strategy, victim experiences and modus operandi of this violent cult gang in Lagos State, Nigeria. Using exploratory design, which relied on in-depth interviews and other secondary sources, the study reached participants through purposive and snowball techniques. Findings showed that the neighbourhood structure permitted the gangs to kill members of many households. Working through insider information, the gang was able to observe vulnerable households and gained entrance into the victims’ residence through the window. Arising from the findings, we suggest that elements in defensible space and routine activities’ perspectives can be used to improve defensible spaces and reduce criminal victimization.
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.
Constructing the Badoo Gang
We sought to know how the participants viewed the violent cult gang and in what ways the activities of the gang would be described. We extracted different responses from participants and also used journalists’ construction of their activities in the analysis. Quite clearly, there was no definite origin on how the name Badoo came about. However, data indicated two possible origins. One, there is a perspective that linked it to reportage by newspapers. To this view, the journalists who were reporting the activities of the gang could not find more appropriate word to nickname the group other than saying Badoo signifying bad ones (Bado). The second came from the reported activities of a serial rapist that predated Badoo in Ikorodu. The serial rapist was fond of tagging the door where he operated with the label Badoo after raping his victims. Coincidentally, it seems like a change of baton from the serial rapist to the Badoo ritual gang because just as the rapist was nabbed, ending his terror activities, the Badoo boys gained ascendancy. Hence, the name Badoo continued to be used as their identity label.
From media reportage to our research participants, the violent cult gang was variously described as ‘evil’, ‘non-human’, ‘marauding gang’ and ‘blood sucking’ gang. This negative construct emanated from their basic reading of the gang’s activities, particularly the way in which human lives were terminated using a grinding stone. Another interesting perspective emerged from the police authorities concerning how they viewed the Badoo gang. To the police, the gang is just another ritual gang. One of these positions is supported by the head of the vigilant group in Ikorodu who claimed to have interviewed a Badoo suspect after his group nabbed him:
We played a very vital role. When the issue of Badoo came up, though from my own submission, I tell people, there is nothing called Badoo. I know them for ritual because, we have never arrested a person who said he is a Badoo. I believe ‘Badoo is just a journalist’s tag … that mode of killing is what the journalist call ‘Badoo’. I don’t know how they got that word oh, it is that mode, you know, it is one style of killing, using grind stone. They are ritualists and they are all over, not only in Ikorodu. (IDI/Male/the head of the vigilant group, Ikorodu/May 2018)
Another participant construction of them was in relation to their dastardly nature of killing people.
I will say they (the Badoo) are non-humans, even animals don’t do that because for you to have the mind to use, not even a machete, not even weapon, but to use a grinding stone to kill an innocent child because of money or whatever that is, is indeed a devilish act. I will call them devil himself because, it is only devil that I have been hearing can do that since I was born. (IDI/Male/respondent 1, Mosafejo Agbowa, Ikorodu/May 2018)
Also, many respondents perceived them (Badoo gang) as a ritualist gang. They got their evidences from the mode of killings attributed to the gang. This could explain why a participant opined that what they do was oriented to become rich through a money-ritual:
Only God sees it all oh! What we heard was that those that wanted to make money at all cost use the blood they took. It is for ritual purpose. (IDI/male/representative of the regent/Agbowa, Ikorodu/May 2018)
What these responses unveil is that the gang’s perceptions were in relation to how they executed their operations starting from target selection to killing them with the use of grinding stone. In what follows, we analyse target selection, and the mode of operation of the gang.
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.
Selecting Targets and Routine Mastery
Our data provided useful insight into the workings of the Badoo gang. As a gang, their activities were structured with assigned responsibilities to each person. The successful execution of the assignment would determine or contribute to the success of each operation. One of the key gang members is a community insider who is sent earlier to provide information on households that have useful characteristics with minimal troubles for their operation. We found that women spies were deployed to the potential area of attack for proper characterization of area, target and supply of other information that may facilitate a hitch-free operation. Using women also indicates the understanding of the gang hierarchy that women are unlikely to raise any community alertness, unlike if men were to be used as spies. With this understanding at the back of their minds, the gang gains foreknowledge of their targets and how to navigate their way into their residences to carry out the attacks. This is shared by one of our participants:
The Badoo will first of all come to spy before they would come to attack. When they caught one, was when we knew that women were among them. He revealed that it was the women that do the surveillance for them during the day. They might be going round to know that a particular house has no burglary. The women give them information on where they would strike. (IDI/male/Baale, Oshorun under Igbogbo/Bayeku, Ikorodu/May 2018)
The residents strongly believed that the operations of the gang would not have been hugely successful without someone from within the community who furnished the gang members with the layout and other community characteristics that aided their operations.
People said there is a probability that they (Badoos) have an informant in this street before they could gain access to it. (IDI/male/respondent/Odogunyan Ikorodu/May 2018)
Another respondent shared the same view when he said the following:
Due to my observation and understanding, I know that if you don’t have one or two information inside (the community), according to a saying that says, ‘it is the inside rat that goes out to tell the outside rat that there is food in this room’. There must be one or two people that are having connections with this people in this community. So, I believe those are the people that are giving them information. How can a stranger just come and he is aware that this house is not with burglary, or that the door of this house is broken. I will say that it would be very hard for even the Popes, the Ministers (of God) to design. They may tell you that ‘this is what I see in the vision, not that this house does not have burglary. This means someone must have seen it and has been giving them information. (IDI/male/respondent 1, Mosafejo Agbowa, Ikorodu/May 2018)
With a good spy to aid their work, the Badoo gang would then have to decide where, when and how to go. Doing this is also based on well thought out strategies of entry.
The Target: Issues in Vulnerability
Examining the data supplied in relation to the target selection and those eventually murdered by the gang, we found a similar pattern. Most of the targets could be characterized as soft targets in low, isolated spaces in the community. The targets could be characterized as poor people who were relatively managing to make ends meet in the communities. They lived in partially completed structures, usually single room apartment and sometimes without burglary proof. Some stayed in boys’ quarter. A participant characterized the victims as people living under the grace of God. A participant stated this of the victims of Badoo:
The people they attacked were not rich. The husband was a motorcyclist while the wife roasts corn by the side of the road. Their house has no burglary and the door is made of plywood. The other house they tried to enter is not well secured. (IDI/male/Odogunyan, Ikorodu/ May 2018)
Further analysis shows that the gang also carefully selected sparsely occupied flats. Unlike ‘face me, I face you’ that has many tenants in it, the gang preferred structures in which they could hide and probably where help may not be forthcoming for the invaded victims. They target victims in houses that have flowers planted round them, short fences, bushes and isolated houses. A participant articulated the following:
Some people’ houses have short fences, the criminals can hide there, some people have bushes in their surroundings, the criminals can also hide there, some houses have burglaries but have flowers planted in their surroundings, it may be an advantage to the criminals in the sense that they hide there and wait till the time they would be able to attack, people may not even suspect them. Those that were attacked were those that were poor. If it was the rich people’s house, they would not have been able to gain entry. Some poor people’s house, may God have mercy on us, have no burglary. The house they attacked here has no burglary proof. The Badoos don’t go to houses that have many tenants living in it. They don’t go to face me I face you houses because people are many there. The Badoos go to flats, single rooms, they go to houses that stand alone (isolated or a bit far) from other houses in the surroundings. (IDI/female/Ibeshe, Ikorodu/May 2018)
Gaining entrance into their victim’s house was usually through the windows including houses with burglary proofs. A traditional ruler in the affected community stated this:
Some houses have burglary proof, but it was removed with chemical. Some did not have burglary. The house they attacked last did not have burglary. The victims were living at the boys quarter. The criminals removed the louvers on the window and tore the window net. The criminal put a stone at the window side, and then used it to climb the fence. (IDI/male/Baale, Oshorun under Igbogbo/Bayeku, Ikorodu/May 2018)
Another participant revealed that the following:
[T]he houses attacked in this community had no burglary. (IDI/male/Baale, Mosafejo Agbowa, Ikorodu/May 2018)
In the communities, we observed that some houses that were attacked were uncompleted, but the ritual gang gained entry mostly through the window.
‘Smashing Their Heads’: Timing and the Killing
One of the regular patterns of operation of the gang is their timing of operations. This may also have to do with regular monitoring of the potential targets, including when they sleep. The common thread of responses from our participants and reports indicated that the gang operated in the early hours of the day, usually between 1
Data further shows that the gang members usually blow a powdery substance into the room of the targets that made them to go into a deep sleep, which allowed the gang to climb into the room before smashing their heads with the grinding stone. A respondent opined that:
When the issue came up, we had to dispatch our men around but later discovered that the madness was always done in the morning, very early in the morning around 1:am, 2:am so we now map up a strategy, that is when we asked each and every one to be vigilant.… None of the people that were attacked survived. So, we cannot really give the account of how they were attacked but what I observed is that, some of those people that we met killed, had their eyes and skulls injured. We had never seen anyone with ‘Omo-odo’ (pestle), we saw them with that grind stone. If they attack this building, once they kill there, we see one grind stone, when we go to the other route, we see another grind stone. (Male/IDI/Ikorodu)
While parading the arrested gang, the then Commissioner of Police of Lagos State Edgar Imhohim, narrated how the gang carried out their heinous act:
The peace of Lagos State was disturbed on December 2017 when at about 0230hours … in Ibeshe Ikorodu when a gang of three killers … where some sections of the Press like to address as Badoo invaded late Sakiru Yekinni’s compound. The gang of three murderers and ritualists usually sprays a powdery substance into the victims’ dwelling place that will make their targets fall into deep sleep before the group ends their lives by smashing their skulls with grinding stone. (Police Commissioner Edgar Ihmohimi/Press Conference/2018)
Concerning the weight of the stone, a respondent who saw one of the stones opined that,
It is a heavy, ugly, terrible scene that has to do with smashing people’s head with a big mass of block, a very big slab. (IDI/female/neighbour to the surviving victim I/ First Gate, Ikorodu/ May 2018)
Another participant who was a surviving victim of Badoo stated the following:
They hit my husband on the head with a stone, something like the stone they use to grind pepper, that native grinding stone. (IDI/female/surviving victim, First Gate, Ikorodu, May 2018)
Since the motive was to kill everyone met in the targeted household, the Badoo gang will proceed from the perceived strong person to the weak person in the household. Data indicated that the ritual gang will hit the husband with the grinding stone first and then proceeded to attack the wife with the stone before getting to the children. This approach was recorded in a case where an entire family was attacked. The man was attacked first in order for their attack to be successful so that he would not be able to defend his family. This was deduced from the reported cases of two families that were attacked at Oshorun community and the at First Gate. A woman survivor spoke about this:
It was my children that woke me up that day. So, when I opened my eyes, he has already hit my husband. So, I saw the person, I asked him ‘who are you looking for?’ then he asked me to shut up and he tried to hit me too, so, by God’s grace, God rescued me and I was able to scream. I started shouting, so that people can come out. When people came out they helped me to rush my husband to the hospital that night (the husband later died before getting to the hospital). (IDI/female/surviving victim, First Gate, Ikorodu, May 2018)
Interestingly the investigation of the police in relation to the purpose of using handkerchief during their operation established a ritual undertone. According to the police commissioner:
[O]nce they are satisfied that the victims are dead, they will use a white handkerchief to scrub their blood for ritual purpose. (Police Commissioner/Press Briefing/2018)
Another respondent’s view was that the handkerchief was used to clean women semen after having sexual intercourse with them. He opined that,
It is the white handkerchief they take back to their boss. That was what they told us. They said that they use the handkerchief to clean their (women) private parts, and is like, though he. (the suspect) did not mention that. (IDI/male)
Apart from the symbolic handkerchief and grinding stone, Badoo gang members also rob black engine oil on their bodies before going for operation. This may be for them to become slippery to be caught by hand since they did not operate with guns. Apart from this, they go for the operations wearing shorts. Participants provided more insights:
The suspect that was caught and that I saw was wearing boxer, they don’t wear cloth and they rob themselves with this spoilt oil, this black oil, something like engine oil, so that in case they are caught you won’t be able to hold them because their body will be slippery and once, they do that, they are about to go for their operation. (IDI/male/respondent 1, Mosafejo Agbowa, Ikorodu/May 2018)
Another one said the following:
After questioning him (of the arrested gang members), he said he was looking for his sister and that he didn’t have transport fare. When he was searched, they saw N1,000 in his pocket. When they caught him in an uncompleted building, they saw a gallon and grinding stone. His body was robbed with oil. The people in the area suspected that he had been going and coming. They felt he had been hiding somewhere and has been going round; to gather information concerning the area. (IDI/female/respondent 1, Ogojo/May 2018)
While the spiritual component is not the goal of this research, it however featured prominently as one of the ways sustaining the gang operations. Indeed, the gang’s reign did not end until the native doctor/herbalist fortifying the gang was arrested in a nearby state to Lagos and the shrine was subsequently destroyed with the collaboration of traditional rulers in Ijebu-Ode. The police commissioner avers:
However, luck ran out on them when one of the victims raised an alarm which attracted the local vigilante group which I set up in Ikorodu. The vigilante group quickly alerted the police in the area who cordoned off the area leading to the arrest of one Chibuzo Igwe. The said Chibuzor Igwe confessed to being a member of this killer group a.k.a Badoo … the gang leader usually takes them to a shrine in Ijebu-ode where an oath before commencement of any operation. The herbalist will then fortify them against arrest by security men. The native doctor also blesses the grinding stone with which they smash people’s skulls. The native doctor, Adebayo Fatai was arrested at his shrine and the shrine was subsequently destroyed with the cooperation of the traditional ruler of Imosan village.
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
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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 (1
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.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
The authors appreciates the editorial inputs of Drs Oluwatosin Ademola Adeniyi and Faisol Olaitan. We also like to thank the reviewers of VVJ for their comments which have improved the quality of this paper.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
