Cultists to serve 21-year jail term in Lagos
Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Monday, approved a 21-year jail term for convicted cultists in the state after signing the bill for the Prohibition of Unlawful Societies and Cultism of 2021.
Those who will be convicted, according to the bill, are persons found guilty of abetting cultists and residents who wilfully allow their properties to be used as meeting points by cultists.
The governor, in a statement, consented to the bill and three others at the swearing-in event for newly appointed members of the State’s Public Procurement Agency Governing Board and two Permanent Secretaries held at Banquet Hall in the State House, Alausa.
He also signed the Lagos State Audit Service Commission (Amendment) Law of 2019, Lagos State Public Procurement Bill of 2021, and Coronavirus Pandemic Emergency Law of 2021.
Sanwo-Olu said “the State had suffered the negative effects of unlawful societies and cultism.”
He added, “the new law seeks to make parents more responsible and show more interest in the upbringing of their children and wards to ensure that they do not become a burden to the society.”
The anti-cultism law repeals the Cultism (Prohibition) Law of 2007 (now Cap. C18, Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2015) and provides for more stringent punitive measures, as well as makes its application all-encompassing and applicable to the general public, as against the restriction of the previous law to students of tertiary institutions.
