Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has approved a 21-year jail term for convicted cultists in the state after signing the bill for the Prohibition of Unlawful Societies and Cultism of 2021.

The State’s House of Assembly, in February, passed the anti-cultism bill, which also stipulates a 15-year jail term for anyone found guilty of abetting cultists and residents who willfully allow their properties to be used as meeting points by cultists.

A statement on Monday said Sanwo-Olu assented to the bill and three others at the swearing-in event for newly appointed members of the State’s Public Procurement Agency Governing Board and two Permanent Secretaries held at Banquet Hall in the State House, Alausa, on Monday.

At the event, the Governor also signed the Lagos State Audit Service Commission (Amendment) Law of 2019, Lagos State Public Procurement Bill of 2021, and Coronavirus Pandemic Emergency Law of 2021.

“The anti-cultism law repeals the Cultism (Prohibition) Law of 2007 (now Cap. C18, Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2015) and provides for more stringent punitive measures, as well as makes its application all-encompassing and applicable to the general public, as against the restriction of the previous law to students of tertiary institutions,” the statement added.

Sanwo-Olu said “the State had suffered the negative effects of unlawful societies and cultism”, stressing that “the new law seeks to make parents more responsible and show more interest in the upbringing of their children and wards to ensure that they do not become a burden to the society”.