Five suspected cult members have been arrested by the police in connection with the murder of a graduate, Sadiq Saka, near the gate of the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, Otto-Ijanikin, Lagos State.

The suspects were apprehended by the police from the Ijanikin division.

The suspects were identified simply as Daniel, 36; Richard, 18; Jamiu, 30; Remix, 27 and 20-year-old Adekunle.

Saka, 26, was said to have recently graduated from the affiliate of Ekiti State University on the college of education’s campus.

Saka was shot and hacked to death near the campus gate by some cult members around 8pm on Sunday.

It was gathered that the attack was the fallout of a supremacy battle between two rival cults – Eiye and Aye confraternities.

Saka had reportedly planned to enter the campus on Monday to process some documents that would enable him to go for the National Youth Service Corps.

It was learnt that he checked into a hotel around the school on Sunday to pass the night.

Some members of the Eiye cult were said to have sighted him at the hotel and given him a chase towards the school gate.

They reportedly shot him at close range and subsequently descended on him with machetes, inflicting injuries in his head.

Hoodlums fled while Saka was rushed to the Badagry General Hospital where he was confirmed dead.

Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Chike Oti, confirmed the killing and arrest of five suspects, saying the police were on the trail of the other perpetrators of the crime.

Oti, a Superintendent of Police, said Commissioner of Police, Edgal Imohimi, was determined to rid institutions across the state of cultism and cult-related violence.

He said, “The police received a distress call that some students suspected to be rival cult members allegedly engaged one another in a supremacy fight at the campus gate. Patrol teams were quickly mobilised to the scene to dislodge them.

“Five of the hoodlums were arrested, while others escaped. One Sadiq Saka was axed on the head during the fight. He was rescued at the scene and rushed to the Badagry General Hospital for treatment. He later died and his corpse was deposited in the hospital’s morgue for autopsy. Effort is being made to arrest other fleeing hoodlums.”

The PPRO added that the case had been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Yaba, for further investigation.

Efforts to get the comments of AOCOED and EKSU managements to the incident proved abortive as enquiries sent to the institutions’ email addresses had yet to be replied to as of press time.