A 20-year-old self-confessed killer of the dreaded Eiye confraternity in Lagos State, Mariam Abiola, has shared more details after her recent arrest by police operatives in Ilasamaja area of the state.
Maryam claimed that she ran away from home because of poverty. She said; “After my secondary school in Abeokuta, I started hawking satchet water and other things with my mother. She told me to quickly get married and the man who wanted to marry me is an old man. My girlfriend who is based in Lagos came back to Abeokuta to see her parents. She told me to follow her to Lagos and without telling my mother, I came to Lagos.
“On getting to Mushin, I discovered that I still have to hawk to survive. The other option is to be sleeping with men for money.
I have a small body and men do not like me so much. They will sleep with me and tell me stories. Unfortunately, I met Sodiq when I visited Ilasa with my girlfriends. He convinced me to join them, that I will make good money. They took us to their herbalist and we took an oath. He then taught us how to use the gun. He told me that all the people that we will kill are bad people. I have never seen N10, 000 in my life, so I was willingly to do anything to make that money.”
When Sodiq confronted her insisting that they have never met, she laughed and said. “Brother Sodiq, you cannot deny me. Your mother sells Agbo (herbal medicine) on your street. It was inside your house that you taught three of us how to shoot. You were even the one who said that since I wear hijab that no one will suspect that I am a killer even if I was found at the scene. You also said I have a small stature that people will believe I am 20 years old. It has happened, denying me will not solve your problem, Brother Sodiq.”
According to Maryam, her first victim was a woman. “The first person I killed was a woman who lived at Hassan area, close to Ilasa. Sodiq said that the woman was evil and needed to die. I entered her house in the night and killed her while she was sleeping with her children. By the time people who heard the gunshot gathered, I had left the place and returned the gun to Sodiq. I even went back to the house to make sure that she did not survive. That night Sodiq gave me N10, 000.
When asked if she knows that it’s a crime to kill, Maryam said yes. “Sodiq explained to me that killing a cult member is not a crime. He assured me that all the persons that I killed were cult members who deserved to die.”
