Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor of Lagos state, has signed bill for the Prohibition of Unlawful Societies and Cultism of 2021 into law.
The Governor signed the bill into law at the Lagos government house, Alausa, Ikeja, on Monday.
The new law stipulates a 21-year jail term for anyone found guilty of engaging in cultism-related activities.
It also stipulates a 15-year jail term for anyone found guilty of abetting cultists or who allows his/her premises to be used by cultists as a meeting place.
Sanwo-Olu said the State had suffered the negative effects of unlawful societies and cultism, stressing that the new law sought to make parents more responsible and show more interest in the up-bringing of their children and wards to ensure that they do not become a burden to the society.
In February 2021, the state house of assembly passed the bill, with Mudashiru Obasa, the speaker of the house, saying the house included punishment for parents of cultists found guilty of cultism in the bill.
Obasa stressed that the punishment was to further prohibit unlawful societies and cultism, including “other connected purposes in the state”.
He noted;
Parents of cultists found guilty of cultism in the state might be liable for punishment.
The anti-cultism law repeals the cultism (prohibition) law of 2007 and provides for more stringent punitive measures.
Sanwo-Olu also signed three other bills into law, which include Lagos state audit service commission (amendment) law of 2019, Lagos state public procurement bill of 2021 and coronavirus pandemic emergency law 2021.
