rival cults or even the police. cults secret brotherhoods of young men are terrorising communities across nigeria, robbing, raping, and murdering. black axe spread fear wherever they go. the closer we get, the more hostile the situation becomes. you can already hear hostile comments, people talking about, why are we here? why are we filming? distant shouting as night fell, we went deeper into the maze of wooden houses. we were going to a place known as the arena, where local axemen gather at night. singing they have agreed to let us film what they call a gyration, a cultist ceremony. the axemen had been drinking and some were high on drugs. black axe have a strict code, enforced with violence. leaked footage shows a member punished for breaking the rules. new recruits are beaten and tortured during initiations. they are then forced to swear an oath of secrecy. black axe ideology blends old nigerian religion with anti colonial activism. the brotherhood claim they are fi
to meet the axemen face to face and to find out who is behind the group. a warning that this programme contains scenes which viewers may find distressing. this morning several bodies found with their heads decapitated - were littered around the city. 13 people have been killed in cult related killings - a secret death cult is thriving in nigeria. more terrifying than anything i ve ever seen. they ve been accused of countless murders at home and abroad. around the world, crime agencies are cracking down on their multimillion dollar internet fraud and human trafficking network. screaming nigerians are trying to fight back, too. shouting but here in their homeland, the cults seem unstoppable. and thousands of young lives have been destroyed. after 20 years abroad, i ve come back to nigeria to investigate this deadly mafia. screaming how have they become so powerful? are politicians behind the violence? who are the men in the shadows, pulling the strings? makoko, one of the large
to investigate this deadly mafia. how have they become so powerful? are politicians behind the violence? who are the men in the shadows, pulling the strings? makoko, one of the largest slums in nigeria. i m on the trail of the black axe, my country s deadliest cult group. this place is incredible. we re literally travelling over raw sewage, but this is the only way we can access the black axe cult in makoko. it s taken months to negotiate a meeting and we have no idea what to expect. we re having to go through the back way, in order to get to this place because we can t be seen to be coming there openly. we re trying to avoid being tracked by, possibly, rival cults or even the police. cults secret brotherhoods of young men are terrorising communities across nigeria, robbing, raping, and murdering. black axe spread fear wherever they go. the closer we get, the more hostile the situation becomes. you can already hear hostile comments, people talking about, why are we here?
as the trees that reach for the sky. i think she s dead! it eats at me. i can t sleep most of the time. reporter: a crime like a storm everyone could see it coming. everybody in town has their suspicions. she was missing the matriarch with a grip on the family s powerful fortune. did someone have a powerful motive to do her harm? i saw bruises on bonnie s arms, like someone had grabbed her. she looked at him and said you tried to kill me. who was behind this? a search in the dark. right there, right there! a secret in the family. and a jailhouse interview to make your jaw drop! reporter: you said you wished she were dead. and then later, she became dead! i m lester holt, and this dateline is a twisted tale deep in the heart of texas. people who are desperate will do desperate things. in this country power and mon and struggle to get hands on both, the saga of a proud texas family never as cold hearted as some of the people you re about to mee
intrigued trump, who asked the director of national intelligence, john ratcliffe to look into it. now it all adds fuel to the fire of what we already know about our former president. he was upset with conspiracy theories and was willing to use any means necessary to keep power within his grip. we know this. trump idolized authoritarianism. and he was obsessed with status. you remember when the former president visited france for the bastille day, in the parade. he was so enamored by the festivities that he decided he wanted to hold one for himself in washington. trump demanded the pentagon get to work in organizing and military show force, and advisers worked overtime to try and tell trump that this was not a good idea. he estimated price tag for getting tanks rolled down pennsylvania avenue just to appease the president, $90 million. luckily for american taxpayers in the streets of d.c.. that plan was shelved. it s just one of the laundry list of confounding experiences th