Lagos on edge, as militants rob, kidnap via riverine areas
Scores killed over past few months
From bunkering and pipeline vandalism in Ikorodu, criminals have upped their deadly trade to robbery and kidnapping, leaving corpses in their wake, even beyond the ancient town to other riverine communities like Igando and Iba.
Daily Trust captures the tales of agony of the affected.
The vandals’ activities have, however, assumed a deadly dimension since the federal government began to pay more attention to curbing vandalisation of pipelines in the Ikorodu and Arepo axes, especially after the criminals killed eight operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS)
At Igbo-Olomu in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State, the Islamic clerics who came to perform a child christening ceremony for Mr and Mrs Akanni Olaniran had barely completed the rites when the couple, with a few relatives, went into the rooms to commence the evacuation of some of their belongings, preparing to leave their home. While well-wishers who had arrived earlier to felicitate with the couple hastened the consumption of their meals with a view to leaving the premises early, others who arrived a little late were simply told the event was over. And it was just 6pm.
An hour after, the Olaniran household had become deserted. “What mattered to us most was completing the naming rite as required by Islam. After that, nothing matters again but our security,” AdijatOlaniran, mother of the new born, said as she dashed into the car where her husband was already at the wheels patiently waiting for her. “Two weeks before I delivered my baby, we had sought refuge in my father-in-law’s house in Ikorodu. But with the arrival of the baby, my husband insisted we return to our own house to name the baby. I obliged him and with three other kids, we returned four days ago.”
Even if the Olanirans had hoped to stay a day longer in their three-bedroom apartment after the naming ceremony, the event on the eve of the ceremony changed that thought. They recalled how an armed gang visited the opposite building, stealing and engaging in merciless torture of the residents. The operation was also extended to other households in the neighbourhood, but by sheer luck, the Olanirans and a few other households were spared.
“An adage says if you are lucky to escape death by the whiskers, you must learn to be grateful forever,” Akanni Olaniran said as he manoeuvred his car out of the compound to connect to the main road that leads to his building. “We are heading to my father’s house which we left a few days ago. May all these crises end soon, so we can return safely to our house,” he pra yed.
The Olanirans’ predicament typifies what other residents of Alarape, Opeloyeru, Peace Estate, Bale and other communities in the river beltof Igbo Olomu, Elepete I, II and III, Magbon, Kajola, Ishawo and Ola Imam all in the ancient Ikorodu town, Ikorodu local government, have had to contend with in the last few months. The communities, many of which are now deserted, are inter-connected. And since they are border communities, it even appears harder to separate them as either belonging to Lagos or Ogun states.
A gift, also a curse
Within that interconnection is a natural gift - a river. But rather than be a blessing, residents lament the river has become an albatross as inside it lie networks of pipes that supply petroleum products to depots in Lagos State. For many years, the pipelines, property of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), have since become an attraction to vandals who find in them a quick means to cash.
All over Lagos State, and in the Arepo community in Ogun State, heavily-armed vandals have been breaking the pipelines from which they siphon petroleum products, especially petrol. A source told Daily Trust that at the height of the illegal trade, a 50-litre jerry can of petrol, officially sold for N4,350 when a litre of petrol was N87 per litre, would easily be purchased for a mere N2,000. The source said it wasn’t uncommon to see many landlords and residents in Ikorodu flocking the vandals’ fuel markets.
The vandals’ activities have, however, assumed a deadly dimension since the federal government began to pay more attention to curbing vandalisation of pipelines in the Ikorodu and Arepo axes, especially after the criminals killed eight operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS) at Arepo on September 16, 2015. Two weeks before then, the Lagos State Police Command had declared three policemen missing after they were allegedly kidnapped by suspected pipeline vandals who engaged the police in a shoot-out at Ishawo, Ikorodu on August 31.
Residents of many communities in Lagos State which had been hit lately by robbers and kidnappers believe that many of the gangsters, who now terrorise the people through armed robbery and kidnapping, were once known to be oil vandals whose operations had been busted by security operatives. Besides losing their ready source of revenue, the vandals were said to be smarting from their belief that members of the communities gave them away to security operatives, hence the reprisal attacks.
“Since their (vandals) activities were curtailed with the siting of a military barracks at a neighbouring community, these criminals have resorted to armed robbery and kidnapping as new means of livelihood,” Alhaji Ajasa Olaofe, a leader in Magbon community, Ikorodu, said. “They seem to be very angry with the recent killing of some of their members by security operatives who busted them at an event they held in a hotel some weeks ago. And since then, hell has been let loose,” he added.
In a recent attack that Olaofe referred to, gunmen stormed one of the Ikorodu communities and
shot many landlords who had constituted themselves into a vigilante group. Residents said then that up to 50 persons were killed, a figure security operatives are yet to confirm or debunk.
Corroborating that account, John Eso, 35, pointed accusing fingers at those he called Ijaw militants. He said the community was able to understand the identity of the gunmen because of the language they spoke, and the fact that they easily navigated the waterways.
“The militants come through the creek in Elepete III at the border between Lagos and Ogun to operate, always at night. Last month, three landlords, including my neighbour were killed. Some people are still missing, and that is why we’re relocating,” Eso said.
Genesis of an exodus
There are residents who said they have nowhere to relocate to. Bidemi Akosile, a 25-year-old motorcyclist who is married with a child, has resigned to fate. He said he and his family have resorted to staying indoors from 7pm. He added that though that decision cannot be described as providing complete safety, it has so far worked for him.
When Daily Trust visited the affected communities in Ikorodu, armed mobile police officers, with an Armoured Personnel Carrier standing by, were seen conducting a stop-and-search as commuters moved in and out of Igbo Olomu. But residents of the community seemed unimpressed by the policemen’s efforts. “Those ones are not security operatives. They are better called something else. What they do is to extort money from passers-by but when the real robbers come, they will be nowhere near,” Bolatito Adetiba, a resident of Opeloyeru community said.
“When an armed gang stormed our community the other night, we called the police and gave direction. But rather than come to our rescue, they ignored us,” Adetiba lamented.
The lady has now left the community. She, with her two children and other family members, have become what she described as internally displaced persons squatting with a relative in the Magodo area of Lagos.
Bolatito’s account was not different from that of Lateef Olaoye, another Ikorodu resident who is taking refuge with an extended family member at the AyoboIpaja area of Lagos State. Olaoye declared that he, together with some landlords in their community, interacted with some police officers posted to the area who bluntly confided in them that it would be suicidal to keep living in the troubled community.
“In our interaction with some of the policemen, they admitted that these attackers, whom we suspect to be Ijaw militants, have superior firepower than them. The security operatives generally are not helpful. They didn’t do anything about the robberies,” Olaoye, the Magbon community leader said.
The top hierarchy of the Lagos State Police Command seems to be aware that the public has no confidence in its ability to rid the state of criminal elements. At the recent 2016 Stakeholders Forum organised by the Office of the Special Adviser to the Lagos State governor on Central Business District (CBD), the State Police Commissioner, Mr Fatai Owoseni, echoed this belief.
“The major problem we have now is for the citizens to have trust in us; they do not trust the police they have. They believe that if they give information to the police, they (the police) will betray them. And due to this, the maximum cooperation we should get from the citizens is lacking. We believe that a large percentage of the reasons acclaimed by the residents were stereotype. The Nigeria police is evolving daily. We want you to have faith in us and I believe that we will not disappoint you,” Owoseni said.
That appeal seems not to be resonating with residents of the troubled communities in Ikorodu, Lagos. Rather, they have called on the federal government to deploy soldiers to their areas to decisively deal with the situation. “We are appealing to the federal government to launch a military operation in this place as the handful of mobile policemen deployed here cannot handle the situation. The militants attack and kill at will without any help from the security agencies. And the menace has been worse for those who reside close to the waterways,” Olaofe, the Magbon community leader, said.
A history of violence
On robbery and kidnapping in Lagos communities through the waterways, Olaofe struck a chord. Indeed, in the last one year, assailants who participated in most of the high-profile criminal activities have actually come through the waterways. For instance, criminals who kidnapped three female students of the Babington Macaulay Junior Seminary School on February 6, 2016 were reported to have come in through the waterways, while the students were also said to have been taken to the creek of Imota, Ikorodu, before they were rescued.
Also, high-profile bank robbery incidents in Lekki, Ikorodu, FESTAC town and Agbara, a border town between Lagos and Ogun states, were all launched through the waterways. And just a few daysago, on July 17, 2016, a traditional ruler of Iba town, a Lagos suburb, Oba Yushau Goriola Oseni, was attacked and subsequently kidnapped from his palace. His assailants were said to have struck and left through the creeks behind the palace.
And last Tuesday, the police foiled what could have been another round of robbery or kidnapping when they engaged gunmen who stormed Iba’s neighbouring community, Igando. Of course, there was a bloodbath: five policemen were reported injured in more than three hours of a shoot-out between the police and the bandits. The gunmen were said to have escaped through the waterways.
The police leadership in Lagos said that contrary to the thinking of the people that the police are helpless, the security operatives are actually battling the crisis. At an emergency meeting convened by the state government and top security operatives, Police Commissioner Owoseni expressed concern on the increasing rate of deadly crimes in the state.
“All of us are bothered. As our people are bothered so are government and law enforcement institutions in the state. Government is doing everything possible and deploying all arsenal of the state towards ensuring that we put a stop to all this,” Owoseni said.
In words that confirmed that the police boss agreed with the belief of many that Niger Delta militants are behind the riverinechannel kidnappings and robberies, he stated: “There is no excuse to say that because they cannot vandalize the pipelines again, they should resort to all these soft target kidnappings.”
He added that government has opened up lots of opportunities for people who want to access soft loans for small-scale businesses through the Bank of Industry (BOI), among other initiatives he believed can keep the kidnappers and robbers engaged.
“Let them have a change of mind, drop their weapons and access these funds that governments at the state and federal levels have created. For those of them who are educated and have certificates and who claimed because they have stopped bunkering there is no other thing for them to do, there are platforms that have been created by government for them to be meaningfully employed,” he appealed.
Owoseni assured all the communities in Lagos State that the police would soon bring all the criminals to justice.
But tension is still palpable in the affected areas, with more and more residents leaving hurriedly. Whether the security agencies and the measures being employed to stop the militants will succeed or not, remains to be seen.