Alake asks Seadogs to tackle cultism on campuses

 

The Alake and Paramount Ruler of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, has tasked the National Association of Seadogs, popularly called Pyrates Confraternity, to adopt more practical means of checking the worsening problems of cultism in the nation’s higher institutions of learning.

Oba Gbadebo said it had become imperative for the Pyrates Confraternity to urgently arrest the current trend where various amorphous groups now terrorise students on campuses.

The paramount ruler of Egbaland stated this on Thursday when the Chairman of the Abeokuta Branch of the Pyrates Confraternity, Mr. Yemi Akintunde, led other members including the Ogun State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Olaokun Soyinka, on a visit to his Ake Palace on the seventh anniversary of his coronation.

The Alake, who recalled that he joined the Pyrates Confraternity in October 1965 as a student at the University of Ibadan, stated that because of the lofty humanitarian ideals and discipline exhibited by all the members then, the group was the most liked of all clubs on the campus by both students and staff.

He said, “I joined the Pyrates Confraternity in October 1965 at the University of Ibadan. Many of us were interviewed then at Kuti Hall but very few of us eventually made it. I’m happy that the problem of illegal initiation is being tackled by the current leadership but you have to do more.

“I’m happy something is being done to separate the wheat from the chaff but you still need to do more to make it different from all these cult groups and you also need to find better means of combating this problem on our campuses.”

Chairman of NAS in Abeokuta, Mr. Yemi Akintunde, told the traditional ruler that the Pyrates Confraternity, which pulled out from the campuses of the various higher institutions of learning across the country since the 1980s, had written to the authorities of the various schools informing them about the illegal activities of some students parading themselves as members of NAS.

Meanwhile, President,  National Congress of Nigerian Students, Mr. Abdulfatah Abdulsalam, has urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to beam its searchlight on the management of  resources in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions.