A man who tried to quit a cult was shot for it, and his attacker has now been arrested
Police in Delta State have arrested a man accused of shooting someone simply because that person wanted to stop being a cult member. The suspect, 28-year-old Oghenebuba Mamatime, is said to belong to the Eiye Confraternity (a secret society, also called a “cult group,” known across Nigeria for initiation rites and violence). He was arrested on July 21, 2026, in Jesse, a town in Ethiope West Local Government Area of Delta State, in a joint operation by police and local youths.
The command’s spokesperson, SP Bright Edafe, said the trouble started on July 2, 2026, along Ujomi Road in Jesse. According to him, the victim (whose name police are withholding) had decided to walk away from the cult. The suspect allegedly tried to force him to return. When the victim refused, an argument broke out, and the suspect allegedly shot him.
When officers searched the suspect after his arrest, they say they found three locally made pistols and one locally made single-barrel gun in his possession. He remains in police custody while investigations continue.
Why “quitting” a cult is rarely simple (background and past cases)
This is not an isolated case. Cult groups in Nigeria, sometimes called “confraternities,” often treat membership as a lifelong obligation that cannot be cancelled by choice. Anyone who tries to leave can be seen as a betrayer who must be punished or forced back. A widely cited account described how a young man who renounced his membership of the Eiye Confraternity in Benin City had to go into hiding with his girlfriend after the group repeatedly attacked and threatened him, and said he could not trust the police to protect him.
Other repentant members describe similar risks. One man who left a cult group after 14 years told reporters that members who try to walk away often face violence, and that arrests rarely stop cult activity because so many members remain free. Research groups monitoring cult violence say some cults enforce membership so strictly that resistance can be met with deadly force.
Delta State itself has recorded several cult-related operations in recent months. Police say they broke up a suspected cult initiation ceremony in Agbarho in June 2026, arresting 25 people after operatives came under gunfire. Just last week, police in the state also arrested eight people said to have confessed to being Eiye members during a separate raid.
Beyond disputes over quitting, rival cult groups also kill each other in large numbers across Nigeria, a pattern that shows how deeply entrenched this violence has become. In Anambra State, suspected cultists beheaded a rival cult leader in July 2023, and six people were shot dead in November 2022 during a shootout between two rival cult groups in Awka. In Kwara State, a clash between the Eiye and Aiye confraternities that began at the state polytechnic in August 2015 spread into the wider city of Ilorin and left 16 people dead, with 30 to 40 suspected members arrested. In Lagos, police confirmed the killing of a Buccaneer Confraternity member on a bridge in Iponri in April 2026, an attack believed to be linked to cult rivalry. And in one widely circulated case, a self-confessed member of the Supreme Vikings Confraternity described how he and others killed a member of the rival Black Axe group in revenge for an earlier killing of one of their own members, saying he now regrets it.
What drives cultism, and who it hurts (causes and effects)
Experts point to a mix of causes: high youth unemployment, weak parental or community supervision, peer pressure, and the promise of protection, money, or belonging that cult groups offer to young people who feel they have no other options. One report noted that unemployment among youth in the Niger Delta region, where Delta State sits, exceeds 40 percent, a condition researchers link to the appeal of cult groups.
The effects fall on many levels. Locally, families live with the fear that a loved one who wants out of a cult could be attacked, as happened in Jesse. Communities lose trust in their own safety, and some residents avoid certain roads or stay indoors when cult tensions rise.
Nationally, cult violence has a heavy cost. One estimate puts cult-related deaths in Nigeria at around 10,000 people between 1996 and 2019, and a separate tracker recorded 581 deaths linked to cultism in 2024 alone. Beyond Nigeria’s borders, members of Nigerian cult groups have also been arrested abroad for crimes including cyberfraud and extortion, which damages the country’s international reputation. This kind of violence also discourages investment and tourism in affected states, since insecurity makes any region look less safe for business.
Should repentant cult members be protected or watched? (a balanced look)
People who leave cult groups are a vulnerable group, but their situation is complicated, and reasonable people weigh it differently.
In favour of stronger protection: A person who renounces cultism is choosing to reject violence and crime, often at great personal risk, and deserves protection rather than suspicion. Punishing the choice to leave, as allegedly happened in Jesse, sends the message that quitting is more dangerous than staying, which discourages other members from ever renouncing.
Reasons for caution: Some repentant members may still hold onto weapons, contacts, or loyalties from their cult days, and security agencies argue that renunciation claims need to be verified rather than simply trusted, especially where a person has a history of violence themselves. Communities that have suffered cult attacks may also be wary of fully welcoming former members back without oversight.
What can be done (possible solutions)
Faster, guaranteed protection for repentant members, including ways to report threats anonymously, so people who want out do not have to weigh their safety against staying trapped.
Community policing partnerships, similar to the joint police-youth operation that led to this arrest, which the Delta State Commissioner of Police, CP Yemi Oyeniyi, described as a model worth extending beyond cultism to drug abuse and kidnapping.
Youth employment and skills programmes aimed at the economic pressures that push young people toward cult groups in the first place.
Stronger, consistent prosecution of cult-related crimes, since weak enforcement has long been identified as a reason cult groups keep operating despite laws banning them.
School and community awareness programmes that reach young people early, before recruitment pressure begins.
Our thoughts
What stands out to me about this case is how ordinary the victim’s decision was, and how extreme the punishment allegedly was for making it. He simply wanted to walk away from a cult group. That should not require the same courage as reporting armed robbers, yet for many young Nigerians caught up in these groups, it does. I think the joint operation between police and Jesse Community youths that led to this arrest deserves real credit, and I would like to see it copied elsewhere. But arrests alone will not fix this. Until young men and women have real economic alternatives and a system that visibly protects those who choose to leave, cult groups will keep finding new members to replace the ones who get arrested.
Published by Ejoh Caleb
