Torture chambers where inmates were brutally tortured and criminally abused. Variously described as "spiritual healing homes", "rehabilitation centres " or "Islamic training institutes", many of the inmates were kept in chains, haggard and disoriented. Some were bruised, and most were "gaunt and unkempt", their "rashes-ravaged skins, laced with scars of lashes, an Apparent indication that the victims were kept under inhuman conditions and subjected to severe torture".
The female inmates alleged that they were serially raped by their keepers, and were victims of bogus marriages and several forced abortions. Some inmates had been detained for over eight years, allegedly so that they could imbibe the discipline to learn the Quran. Some were supposedly insane, brought in to be cured at the centres . In just one of the camps at Least 62 people were alleged to have been tortured to death over the last eight years.
One notable thing about these camps (incidentally discovered in the city of Ibadan within weeks of each other) is that the inmates were mainly brought in by relatives. Parents, guardians and family who either believed that the "schools" strict regimen was needed to reform their wayward children, or who trusted in the redemptive powers of the proprietors to cure their wards of drug addiction or mental illness. These relatives often visited the facilities, they must have seen the harsh treatment their wards received, but somehow believed in both the ideology propounded by the proprietors of the centres and the methods they used. Then, the teaching assistants, aides and other students of the schools.
Surely these ones were also normal people with some sense of reason. Couldnt they all see that something was seriously wrong in these centres? The Ibadan "detention camps" might be strange and condemnable, but they are not unique (the fact that their proprietors claimed to be "Muslim clerics" might have accounted for the righteous alarm with which the media fed us the story and the zeal with which the Police Command mobilized the elite Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) to invade the premises).
Very recent history abound of closed and deviant religious groups where members, willing or unwilling, having undergone some unique membership rites are exploited, often fatally, by Their leaders. Just last month, police in the United States invaded the YFZ Ranch near Texas to free 133 women and over 400 children allegedly kept in the guarded complex against their will.
The YFZ Ranch was home to a breakaway faction of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints which practices a curious form of polygamy, and where male church elders allegedly abused and exploited the younger ones. You might also remember popular names like "Reverend King", "Jesu Oyingbo", "Sheik Jabar", "Olurnba Olurnba", and so on, but even these wayward ideologues are insignificant when compared to some of the more dubious religious cults spawned in recent times.
These cults have done much damage , over the years, imprisoning the minds, if not just the bodies of their victims as did the charlatans of Ibadan. There are several contemporary equivalents to these groups, and we would make bold to include the ones where followers are made to carry out suicide attacks and mass murders, whilst the leaders (and their own children) are hidden away from sweet "martyrdom". But is there a common thread to all these groups? Yes, they have the same odious characteristics - peculiar interpretations of religious texts, absolute obedience and fealty to personalities rather than Deity (or to a deity but only through the interpreter), easy access to huge funds, mainly from the income or sold assets of members (you might include tithes and "offerings").
They are all led by charismatic leaders with messianic pretensions who combine psychosis with religious zeal. They all boast a membership of thoroughly brainwashed ignore amuses who allow their honest spiritual yearnings to be taken advantage of. These ones are generally too blinded by the comfort of their spiritual laziness to make an effort to seek out the truth in the right quarters. When you combine these three elements, you get a lethal mix: selfish criminals exploiting spiritual vacuums to wreak deadly havoc. And, what is the lesson from this discourse? Be wary of the "religious" groups you join; be careful who you let into your mind.
This article was culled from the publications of Deen Communication Limited