Living in campus will reduce cult-related crimes, say undergraduates

Undergraduates have urged university proprietors across the country to ensure all students are living within the campus, saying, staying off-campus increases cult-related activities among students.

The rise of cultism in the country’s tertiary institutions is responsible for increased cases of killings, rape and robbery, among others.

Though, the activities of cultists differ from campus to campus, it has gone past secret missions to open activities.

Some students, who spoke with The Guardian, believe that providing accommodation for all students in all citadels of learning and ensuring effective security services will curb the menace.

They affirmed that most students who are cultists became so under duress and not by choice, as majority of cultists live off-campus and perpetrate their acts off-campus as well.
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A student of Obafemi Awolowo University, Olafasakin Oladayo, is one of those who believed that provision of more hostels to accommodate students would help protect the students from confrontations of cultists.

He said: “It will be difficult to totally eradicate cultism, their activities can only be checked and contained within the school environs. While some students join cult groups because they feel they need to protect themselves from being intimidated by lecturers or their fellow students, others are lured into it. But, if government and other university proprietors could provide accommodation for students, I believe it can be reduced, because most of these cult guys stay off the campus.

Echoing Oladayo’s word, Oluwapelumi Odushe, a student of Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) said, “I believe students engage themselves in cultism so they can feel protected and above their peers. It has also been revealed that not all cultists ventured in willingly.”     

Another student who identified herself as Imade from the University of Port-Harcourt (UNIPORT), affirmed that many students were actually lured into joining. “Some cultists today are not cultist by choice. Some were lured in by their friends, and they operate mostly outside the campus.”

For Akorede Adebayo, a student of Ekiti state University (EKSU), some students were bullied into joining. “Students are confronted by cultist and forced into joining the secret society, and most of them have no other choice other than joining. But if they are living within the school premises, with well-trained security agents, there is little or nothing these bad guys can do.”