Nigerian cult mafia groups and how they wreak havoc on society
By Pius Adeleye, in Asaba
Nigeria’s deadly cult groups have killed and maimed people across the country – The Africa Report takes a look at how ordinary Nigerians get caught in the crossfire.
On a Sunday evening in March 2022, 19-year-old Kingsley* was half asleep when his 21-year-old brother burst into their one-bedroom apartment in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. Kingsley initially thought his brother had entered playfully with a school friend – until he saw the uneasiness on his face.
Seconds later, a group of armed men also came in, and Kingsley, who had witnessed multiple cult attacks in the city, recognised their appearance, slogan and language as those of the dreaded Black Axe mafia, alternatively called Aye. From their conversation with his brother, it was clear they had come for a retaliatory strike.
“I heard a slash and my brother’s painful grunt,” says Kingsley, who is now lying face down in fear. As the cult group left, echoing “Aye axe-men,” with the response “blood for blood”, one of the men struck Kingsley on the head, but he did not pass out.
When he finally struggled to lift his head, his brother’s body lay lifeless in a pool of blood, which had splattered on the wall.
The elites are the real beneficiaries of the mafias that exist on streets and campuses
Earlier in 2021, an accident on an interstate highway linking Nigeria’s southern and eastern regions claimed their parents’ lives. With his brother now gone, he is left without immediate family.
“I did not know my brother belonged to a cult group, but now he is dead – they killed him,” Kingsley tells The Africa Report.
Cult violence
For decades, Nigeria’s academic institutions have battled relentless cult violence, with clashes between rival groups and infighting, leaving thousands dead or injured.
In recent years, these conflicts have spilled onto the streets, where gangs, celebrities and former students from campus cult affiliates, fight for control and engage in retaliatory assaults that result in endless violence.
Weeks later, Kingsley joined the rival Eiye confraternity in Benin City to avenge his brother’s death, which marked the beginning of his battles on campus and on the streets with other rival mafias and factions.
Deadly groups
In 1952, Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka and six fellow students at University College Ibadan founded the Pyrate Confraternity to challenge elitism and colonial influence in Nigeria’s higher institutions. The group sought to promote intellectualism, nationalism, and social justice, pushing back against the privileged students who had embraced British colonial values.
“They may have had good intentions, but the brotherhood’s secret operations – though largely peaceful – set the stage for violent cultism across the country’s academic community in the subsequent years,” says Rotimi Animashaun, a senior lecturer at the University of Ibadan, who has spent decades researching cultism in Nigeria.
Over time, alumni and splinter groups took campus cults beyond academic institutions, expanding their presence in Nigerian streets and societies. In recent decades, these groups have spread across West Africa and the diaspora.
“Cult groups in Nigeria are deadly,” says Animashaun. “Even when they look peaceful, there is a dangerous underground operation that is certainly taking place,” he tells The Africa Report.
Between 1996 and 2019, cult-related violence killed about 10,000 Nigerians, according to Exam Ethic Marshal International, an Abuja-based education advocacy group. In 2024, NaijaConfra, an online anti-cultism tracker, reported 581 deaths, though experts estimate more.
While data on cult-related deaths abroad is scarce, security agents in the US, Italy, France, and Spain have arrested members of Nigerian mafias for crimes including abduction, cybercrimes, and extortion.
The brotherhoods
During his initiation into the Eiye fraternity, Kingsley endured brutal beatings and drank blood-infused alcohol. Chants and incantations were also repeated throughout the rituals which lasted for three nights, sealing his allegiance to the fraternity.
Narratives from six members of Black Axe, Vikings, Buccaneers, and Maphite cult mafias across southern Nigeria, including university-based members, describe similar brutal initiations that corroborate Kingsley’s claims.
“Boys who die in the process are unfit for a brotherhood,” says a senior leader of a campus-based Vikings cult in South East Nigeria, stressing how their corpses are either buried or dumped in popular public spaces.
Kingsley was taught the Eiye fraternity’s slang, secret codes, and rival identification – a common practice for recruits of cult groups. It soon became clear that his revenge was not a priority.
Kingsley’s brother had also been a target of the Eiye Mafia. The fraternity had its own existing plans for retaliation on selected targets.
In 2024 alone, Black Axe was responsible for more than 200 cult-related deaths, followed by Eiye and Vikings with 138 and 109 lives respectively, according to NaijaConfra.
“International security partners often focus on Black Axe,” says Gideon Williams*, a unit officer at the Nigeria Police Force’s Interpol National Central Bureau (NCB).
“Their ruthless operations, vast network, and strong foreign ties make them a threat both locally and globally,” he says.
While Kingsley bided his time to avenge his brother’s killers, he had become a serial killer in the mafia. “For every trigger I pulled, for every man I slew, I had my brother’s bloody image in view,” says Kingsley.
Innocent casualties
In October 2022, after 12 years of childlessness, Folashade Abimbola, 39, gave birth in a private maternity hospital in Lagos, Nigeria’s economic capital. Her husband returned to their home to get a few necessities for his wife, but that was the last time Abimbola saw him.
“The health workers kept calling his phone, but no one answered,” Abimbola recalls. The next day, she got a report that her husband had been killed by a stray bullet during a violent clash between Black Axe and Eiye.
“I’m still in shock,” says Abimbola. “Every time I look at my baby, I remember the trauma.”
When violent clashes between rival cult groups across southern Nigeria take place, either on campuses or in the streets, they often claim innocent lives, force business closures, and leave communities in fear.
“As a butcher in the group, you must be defensive, fearless, and willing to kill (even) your parents during a clash,” says Kingsley. “Your opposition must see how much you can give in a fight; it is the game of the mafia.”
Benin City businessperson Ngozi Joy, 46, borrowed 250,000 naira from a Cooperative bank last year to reinforce her dwindling business. She was robbed during a violent clash between Eiye and Vikings confraternities. “I have not recovered from the debt,” she tells The Africa Report.
Real beneficiaries
Many Nigerian cult groups operate under registered legal entities with different names. The Neo-Black Movement of Africa (NBM), National Association of Airlords (NAA) and De Norsemen Kclub International (DNKI) are registered as humanitarian and socio-cultural organisations, allegedly widely linked to the Black Axe, Eiye and Vikings confraternities respectively.
These registered groups have publicly denied any ties to the violent activities of their alleged affiliates. Multiple requests by The Africa Report for further clarification have gone unanswered.
But Williams at Nigeria’s Interpol National Central Bureau, says investigations with Interpol reveal strong ties between the registered groups and their violent affiliates.
“This dual identity allows them to operate publicly while maintaining underground activities,” he says. “For years, it confused security agencies struggling to distinguish their legal and illegal operations.”
“The Black Axe and other cult groups are notorious for romance scams and cyber fraud,” he adds. “It is a steady income to fund their illicit activities.”
Kingsley and seven other cult members from four different groups tell The Africa Report that the registered organisations consist of elites – wealthy men, celebrities, and politicians – who use the mafias as tools for greed, power, and destruction.
“During elections and other times, outsiders connect with top members of the registered group, and we’re recruited for the dirty work,” Kingsley says. “The elites are the real beneficiaries of the mafias that exist on streets and campuses.”
Nigeria’s anti-cultism laws impose harsh penalties, including imprisonment, for convicted cultists and sponsors. However, weak enforcement, political interference, and sabotage have slowed effectiveness.
“Sometime in 2022, while investigating a suspected Black Axe cyber fraudster, we received orders from a top police official to stop monitoring him,” says Williams.
Resisting means death
By December 2024, Kingsley knew his revenge no longer mattered. His fraternity had deceived him, just as it did to countless young Nigerians – with false promises of jobs, protection, and retribution. Instead, he had been turned into a killer, inheriting the burdens of others. He denounced the group’s membership. “Cultism has no gain,” he says.
Lecturer Animashaun warns that celebrities with large followers are promoting cult groups through their music and videos, exploiting the vulnerability of unemployed Nigerian and African youths, who are easily swayed by peers. “These have made cultism fertile in Nigeria,” he says.
But like other mafias, Eiye enforces permanent membership, and resisting means death. “For weeks, they have haunted me, along with other groups seeking revenge,” he says. “Sooner or later, they’ll find me – and do to me what I did to others.”
Infighting in mafia groups, often caused by power struggles, ideological differences between top members, and disputes over spoils, “is usually deadlier than inter-mafia conflicts,” says Animashaun.
Despite his fears, Kingsley has no desire to kill again. “I feel happier,” he says. “Cultism is worse than the deadliest disease.”
*The names of those mentioned in the article have been changed to protect them
