Barely two weeks after The Nation published an exclusive report about soldiers from 35 Artillery Brigade, Alamala, Abeokuta escorting some herdsmen to Ketu-Yewa speaking villages in Yewa North Area of Ogun State, where they flogged villagers for rejecting the herders, soldiers again invaded the villages and made frantic attempt to force the victims to recant torture allegation against them, as Force Headquarters, Abuja, invite villagers for questioning following alleged petition by herdsmen, reports KUNLE AKINRINADE.

• Tell residents to deny media reports that they were flogged

• Threaten to arrest villagers whose names appear in The Nation’s story

• Vow to shun future distress calls from communities

• Force headquarters invite residents for questioning in Abuja

• Lawmaker, group, monarch seek probe of Army’s complicity

For the second time, soldiers from 35 Artillery Brigade, Alamala, Abeokuta, Ogun State, have visited some villages in Yewa North Local Government Area, Ogun State, where they had earlier brutalised residents at the instance of some herdsmen.

In a report exclusively published by The Nation penultimate Saturday, the soldiers had reportedly escorted some herdsmen to some of the villages on December 19, 2020 and flogged many of the residents for refusing to allow the herdsmen to graze their cattle on their farmlands.

About 29 villages in the area had been attacked in recent times by terror herdsmen who were said to have camped at Eggua, a neighbouring town, from where they led their cattle to destroy farmlands within the Ketu-Yewa communities, which share borders with the Republic of Benin.

The affected villages include Ateru, Moro, Ologun, Agbon, Igbota, Ogunba-Aiyetoro, Oke-Odo, Ibore, Gbokoto, Iselu, Ijale, Ohunbe, Igbeme, Ijoun, Owode-Ketu, Igan-Alade, Lashilo, Oja Odan, Moro, Ologun, Iyana Meta, Igbooro, Egbeda, and Kuse.

The story has not been refuted by the Nigerian Army or the federal authorities many days after it was published.

Worried by the development, some traditional rulers in the area had written a petition against the soldiers, the state government, and the police in the state.

In a bid to silence the victims of the brutality, about six soldiers led by one Captain John Onyebuchi, visited some of the villages in the Yewa North Local Government Area of the state again at about 2 pm on Friday, January 29, 2021.

At Ubeku, in the presence of the Baale (village head) Chief Olaleye Adigun, a youth leader Peter Koposhu and other villagers, the soldiers asked one of their victims, Seye Mulero to recant his statement published in the petition and reported by The Nation. According to a four-minute audio recording of the event that transpired during the visit and obtained by our correspondent, Captain Onyebuchi revealed that the Army headquarters was worried by the petition it received and news report over the allegation that men of 35 Artillery Brigade, Alamala, Abeokuta escorted herdsmen to the affected communities where they brutalised some villagers for refusing herdsmen to graze their cattle on their farmlands.

In the said audio recording, Onyebuchi was heard frantically asking Mulero to make a video recording of the retraction to save the Army from embarrassment. The victim, however, refused to retract his statement, insisting that he was flogged and badly wounded.

Disturbed by Mulero’s stance, Onyebuchi said: “The story says ‘Soldiers escort herdsmen to Ogun villages… At that point, the soldiers seized him and beat him mercilessly…’

“See, this is a big allegation and we will not take it for granted.

‘’The (Nigeria) Army got in touch with Alamala (35 Artillery Brigade), which in turn sent me here. I have to write a report on the investigation because I must report back to the person who sent me here.

“…I want you (youth leader) to video him (Seye) because your name is what we have in the petition. Your name is what we have, so you (youth leader) will record him now, he will call his name and say that nobody touched him.”

Onyebuchi then asked that Mulero be filmed while refuting the story that he was beaten by soldiers who escorted herders to the village.

“He will call his name as you are recording him and say that all these are false. Nobody touched him and whatever he said, nobody forced him to say; he said it out of his freewill in the presence of the Baale and the youth leader and, of course, members of the community.

“Are you getting me? Go ahead…if that is done, I think I am okay with it.’’

The soldier however warned that the failure of the victim to make the retraction might force the Army to return to arrest him as well as shun any distress call from the community.

He said: “Let me tell you what this thing means. There’s a need to clear this air. If you don’t clear it, next time when they call, the Army will not respond because you people have alleged and penned the name of the Army in a bad light (sic) and the Army will not respond when there is an emergency in this place.

“If they don’t respond, you can’t blame them. So, the need to clear this is very important. If I were you, I would come out clear because your name is everywhere in the petition they wrote; that you were beaten mercilessly, and look at you here.

“Say it that whoever is doing it is doing it on his own; that you didn’t send anybody.

“If you like, pretend to feign lack of understanding by saying ‘mi o gbo, mio gbo (I don’t understand)’, that is your problem… If tomorrow they come here and pick you up that you were using the name of the Army anyhow, you will go in for it. So, the earlier you clear the air, the better for you.”

Mulero, however, refused to be intimidated, saying: “…I was flogged. You can see the wounds on my back and I am still feeling pains. The soldiers beat me up, kicked me, and dealt blows on me. Even parts of my body swelled up.’’

Mulero’s younger brother, Gabriel, who was also flogged by the soldiers, said the second coming of the soldiers had heightened fears among the villagers.

He said: “The soldiers wore red berets, which suggested that they were military police. They left around 4 pm. They met with the Baale, the youth leader Peter Koposhu and other villagers.

“They came in a military van and left disappointed after my brother refused to do what they wanted of him.’’

Tension as residents flee communities over harassment by soldiers

The second visit of soldiers to the communities has created tension and panic in the area as residents are beginning to relocate for fear of being apprehended by the minions.

The villagers see continued harassment by military men as an indication of more trouble on the horizon. They fear that soldiers could resort to arrest and further intimidation of those perceived to be opposed to them and the herdsmen they are backing.

A villager, Daramola Adekola, said he was one of the people contemplating relocating from his village. He condemned what he termed as orchestrated oppression by soldiers following the rejection of herders in the community.

Adekola said: “I am an indigene of this community, but life has become miserable for us, especially those of us who are farmers, following the destruction of our crops and farmlands by herdsmen.

“Since we have been crying out to security forces for protection from the herders who have been killing our people, including children, and raping our women, the military did not for once respond to our cries.

“But look at the way they escorted herdsmen to forcibly graze in our villages and beat some of our people mercilessly for rejecting the herders.

“Now, they returned after our plight which was published by The Nation went viral and resorted to forcing the victims to recant following what they termed the embarrassment the report caused the Army.

“I am one of those considering leaving the community, because many of us fear that they may come back again to further deal with us, going by the countenance of the officer who led the soldiers after the victims refused to recant what was published in the petition and the newspaper.’’

Reacting, the spokesperson for 35 Artillery Brigade, Major Osoba, confirmed that Captain Onyebuchi went to the villages on the said date and therefore was in the best position to explain what transpired.

He said: “Captain John Onyebuchi is one of our officers here, and he is the officer in charge of legal services.

“But since Captain Onyebuchi is the one who went to the villages, I want to advise you to demand his phone contact from the villagers so you can call him because he is in the best position to explain to you what happened there.’’

Twist as police invite villagers for interrogation

In a twist to the issue, the police had also served invitations on residents, asking them to come to the Force Headquarters in Abuja for interrogation.

The letter was signed by Mr. Kolo Yusuf, a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) of FIB Special Tactical Squad, Force Headquarters in Abuja.

According to a copy of the letter sighted by The Nation, the villagers are expected to be questioned by operatives on February 8.

The letter dated January 26, 2021, reads in part: “This office is investigating a case of criminal conspiracy, unlawful possession of prohibited firearms, causing grievous hurt and mischief that your name featured in.

“You are kindly requested to interview (sic) the undersigned officer on 8th February 2021 by 1000hrs through Assistant Superintendent of Police, ASP Sunday Ibrahim…”

The invitation has since created tension in the villagers as residents feared they could be detained by the police.

Some residents who spoke with our correspondent said the police invitation was at the instance of the embattled herders who they said were hell-bent on intimidating the villagers to submission after their plot to use soldiers to achieve their aim failed.

The residents noted that senior officers from the Ogun State Police Command had earlier visited the affected villages barely one month ago on a fact-finding mission and did not find them wanting.

A resident of Asa village, Akanbi Afolabi, said: “The police invitation is another brazen attempt by the unrelenting herdsmen to silence us just so they can continue to unlawfully graze on our farmlands and by extension further their raping and killing of our women and daughters.

“They said we are being investigated for unlawful possession of firearms whereas the herders who had been attacking us with guns and machetes were never for once investigated let alone prosecuted for opening fire on our people and killing many residents.’’

A farmer in Agbon-Ojodu, Lamidi Adeola, said the police were only trying to achieve what the soldiers could not do for the herders.

He said: “The police invitation is laughable. It is another ploy by the herdsmen to achieve their mission, which is to take over our farmlands and chase us away from our homes.

“The state police command had earlier in January visited here and confirmed that we have been calm in the face of provocation by fiendish herders. Hence, the latest invitation from Force Headquarters, Abuja is worrisome.

“We learnt that the plan was to invite us to Abuja where we would be detained for several months while the herders would have destroyed whatever is left of our ravaged farms by the time we are released.

“The irony of it all is that the herders who have been terrorising us with rifles and machetes are not being accused of bearing unlawful firearms while innocent villagers are now being hunted by the police for spurious allegations.

‘’Believe me, if our people had firearms, there would have been a balance of terror. But we are law abiding citizens, hence, we did not retaliate the attacks carried out against us lately.

“The only thing we have done is to resist herders from grazing in our villages, and that is why we are being unduly harassed by soldiers and policemen.’’

The spokesman for Ogun State Police Command, Mr. Abimbola Oyeyemi, said the Command had no knowledge of the invitation served on the villagers from the Force Headquarters in Abuja.

Oyeyemi said: “We have no idea that the villagers have been served with an invitation by the Force Headquarters, Abuja. We shall find out the veracity of the invitation.

‘’However, we had visited the communities on January 3rd, where we held meetings with the community leaders and the leadership of the herdsmen to ensure that peace reigns between the host communities and herdsmen.’’

ASP Ibrahim however confirmed that the police had actually invited the villagers for interrogation in Abuja.

Ibrahim said: “It is true that we served the invitation on some villagers in Yewa area of Ogun State.

“There’s a petition from the office of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) that was sent to our office, and I was detailed to investigate it.

“We served the invitation letters on the people (the herders) they were complaining against and a date (February 8) has been fixed for the people mentioned to come around to our Abuja office, SARS premises near the old abattoir just before CBN Junction.

‘’I will attend to them first before taking them to the officer who signed the invitation letters, DCP Kolo Yusuf.’’

Lawmaker, group, monarch demand probe of Army, police involvement

In its reaction after the story was published, the Ogun State government had pledged to probe the flogging of the villagers by soldiers at the prompting of herdsmen.

In a statement issued on January 24, 2021, the Chief Press Secretary to the Ogun State Governor, Kunle Somorin, said in Abeokuta, the state capital, that government was investigating the matter.

He said anyone found culpable would be dealt with according to the law.

The probe promised by the state government was yet to commence when soldiers went back to the communities to force victims to recant on their statements.

Reacting through a statement issued by his media office, the Senator representing Ogun West, Tolu Odebiyi, also demanded action from the federal and state governments as well as the military and police authorities on the matter.

Odebiyi asked the Federal Government, the military, and the police authorities to probe the alleged harassment of his constituents by soldiers.

He said: “It is morally wrong to allow herders to graze on people’s farms unchecked, to the point that law-abiding citizens are rendered hapless.

“This sends a dangerous signal in addition to undermining the credibility of the government.”

He asked the Brigade Commander of the 35 Artillery Brigade, Alamala, Abeokuta, and the Commissioner of Police, Ogun State Command, to urgently look into the matter.

“We call on the Army authorities, the Presidency and the National Assembly to, as a matter of urgency, investigate this incident and publish their findings,’’ the statement added.

Also, a think tank group of professionals, the Yoruba Leadership and Peace Initiative (TYLPI), condemned the reports that armed soldiers allegedly molested indigenes of communities in the Ketu area of Ogun State, as they escorted herders previously rejected by the people because of their criminal activities in the communities.

In a statement jointly signed by its President and General Secretary, Messrs. Olusegun Ahmadu and Olufemi Adefemiwa, the group urged the Ogun State Government to constitute a public judicial inquiry into the incident, noting that it would amount to treason that troops, wearing army uniforms “and bearing arms procured with taxpayers’ money, openly took sides against a group of law-abiding Nigerians on their ancestral land.’’

Speaking with The Nation, a monarch whose jurisdiction covers some of the villages, the Eselu of Iseluland, Oba Akintunde Akinyemi, urged the federal government to rein in the Army and the police in order that peace might reign.

He also called for the establishment of a judicial panel of inquiry to, among others, investigate the brutalizing of residents by soldiers while siding with herders, killings and destruction of farmlands by herdsmen as well as the complicity of policemen from Abuja in the alleged plot to invite residents for interrogation in a bid to silence them.

Oba Akinyemi said: “The federal government must as a matter of urgency restrain the Army and operatives of Force Headquarters, Abuja from being used by herders to brutalise and intimidate my people. Enough is enough.

“But more importantly, we want the state government to commission a judicial panel of inquiry to investigate the complicity of the military and police in the heinous attacks on our people by herdsmen, especially the recent police invitation served on hapless villagers, whose crops and farmlands have been destroyed by herders who also killed several women and men in these communities.

He added: “The police invitation of villagers who are mostly farmers is funny in the sense that the villagers’ means of livelihood have been destroyed by herders; so where will they get thousands of naira to transport themselves to and from Abuja, where intelligence gathered has revealed that they might likely be detained for several weeks?

“Recently, with the assistance of a local vigilance group, three herdsmen with one Ak47 rifle, machetes, and assorted live ammunition and cartridges were apprehended after they killed one Olabisi Afolabi and attacked some women at Moro and Eegelu villages.

“The suspects, namely Mohammed Bello, Muhammed Momoh and Yisau Umoru, were detained at the state police command, Eleweran, Abeokuta, but were released without being prosecuted.

“Therefore, it is funny that those who are victims of herders’ attacks are the ones being invited for interrogation in Abuja while herdsmen who are the tormentors have not been questioned even once.’’

Taiwo Alimi visits Alimajiri colonies in Ogun State to report the daily struggles of child beggars and their parents to survive against all odds under the jackboot of molestation, abuse and deprivation.

• Molested and abused child beggars, women relive ugly experiences

• Experts warn of future security problems in Southwest

ALMAJIRA

Abiba, 6, was born on the street. Her delivery was taken by two elderly women in the colony of beggars. Though not trained midwives, they are considered old enough to offer delivery tips and have become experts at taking delivery of new born babies. In between them, Rukayat and Atikah have cut the umbilical cords of more than a dozen newborns.

Before becoming ‘In-house midwives,’ they had given birth to 17 children of their own.  Rukayat migrated to the Southwest from Jigawa State six years ago while her assistant, Atikah, joined the migration to berth in Ogun State, eight years ago.

Like Abiba, some of their children are among the scores of almajiria or child beggars that have taken over the rugged spaces on and under the bridges of Arepo/Magboro along the fast-growing Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

Abiba runs riot with two other girls around the dusty and busy highway between Magboro and Arepo on a daily basis. From sunrise to sundown, they scamper after hundreds of motorists, begging for everything from food to money, water and clothing.

To show that she was born in the Southwest, Abiba has picked up some ‘broken English’, more or less the lingua franca spoken by the literates, semi-literates and illiterates in Nigeria.

Abiba thus communicates better than her mother, who sits with a group of women beggars at a vantage point close to the bridge top about half a kilometer away.

This reporter’s chance meeting with Abiba and friends happened on a sunny midday on his way to work. They were busy at work – scavenging whatever they could from motorists connecting the expressway through the dirt road. The group had chosen a vantage point, where vehicles have to queue up to access the main road. At that point they move in for the ‘kill.’

‘Give me money,’ Abiba’s strong voice came from nowhere. In tow came other members of the three-girl group, who quickly echoed Abiba’s words. Abiba came bold and prepared, providing answers to all of this reporter’s queries. When told that there was no loose change, she was not deterred and promptly came up with the line, ‘Give me water,’ pointing at a table water bottle in the car. When this reporter showed her the near empty bottle, thinking that would send her away, adamant Abiba pursued another line: ‘Give me money…. eat…..I never chop …….yesterday’. The others took a cue from her to chorus ‘God bless you’ like a priest would tell his congregation.

Even at age six, Abiba is already streetwise. She is not afraid and has assumed leadership of the team. She runs the show and ensures that they have something to show at the end of their daily struggle. She was willing to talk when I further engaged her on the whereabouts of her parents. “My mama dey there,” she said pointing at a group of beggars by the bridge. “She go use money give food, I beg you in the name of God.”

The location she pointed out is adjacent to the popular ‘Arepo Under Bridge’ bus stop, where over 100 beggars of Northern Nigeria extraction gather daily to entreat for alms from passersby and motorists. They are mainly women, children and toddlers. Sometimes people go there specifically to donate raw and cooked food, clothing materials, salt and sugar to them.

Abiba was not done. ‘They born me here, I beg here,’ she boasted.

Abiba and friends are micro samples of thousands of almajira or girl beggars littering parts of Ogun and Lagos states.

ALMAJIRI   

In operation, the almajiri (boy beggars) are separated from the girls. Their ages range from five to 10 years and they roam the streets for survival. They are seldom seen in company of girl beggars but flock together in fours and fives.

Sometimes, it is not impossible to find toddlers of not more than two years in their midst. They move in groups, maintaining some distances from each other and are always present in high vehicular traffic, at bus stops to crowd around motorists and passengers. Motorcyclists and their passengers are not spared of their aggressive style of begging too.

With the aid of a Hausa interpreter, this reporter visited their colony some days later and spoke with Abiba’s mother and some of their leaders.

According to Abiba’s mother, Laraba, she has been begging since age two.  She started with a group of older children to learn the rope. As soon as she turned six, she was put in charge of her group, with a brief to scout for money, food, water, clothing and gift items. Nothing is small. Not even a sachet of water.

PROTECTION

There is no form of protection for Abiba and hundreds of other children in the colony. In hot and cold weather alike, they are clad in local buba and iro (top and wrapper) or loose gown and wrapper, which are usually rough and dirty from walking the filthy road day after day. Change of clothing is a luxury they cannot afford because they depend on handouts.

Laraba explained; “We don’t have money to buy cloth. It is from clothes that people give us that we look for fitting ones for the children. We use the little money we get to buy food.”

No wonder the three girls were in different shades of oversize dresses. Abiba’s cloth is worst, leaving a huge gap in the neck area and exposing her whenever she bends to look into any car. In-fact, she has another job of forever scooping the oversize buba and iro behind her.

“Sometimes people give us cooked food which we share and raw ones too which we cook under the bridge where we live, Laraba said.”

Their abode is an improvised shed under Arepo Bridge, where they retire every night after a hard day’s work.

Abubakir Musa, 71, who claimed to be a ‘big man’ from Kebbi State before flood washed away his farm, pointed to nylon covered sheds which were no more than 8 square meters- about the size of a standard room in Nigeria. “We allow our women with babies and toddlers to sleep in the shed while the rest of us find empty spaces under the bridge.”

Mustafa Sanusi, 35, who speaks passable English, is the colony’s spokesman. He put a conservative figure of their population at 300. “We are about 300 in this area. There are more women than men and the number of children is more than a 100.”

This means that Abiba and friends cannot get into any of the sheds and will have to spend their nights same way they spend their days; in open space.

“Men and teenage boys sleep in the open mosque under the bridge,” Sanusi added.

CORONAVIRUS

In-spite of the havoc and deaths that the COVID-19 pandemic has wrecked on the world, Coronavirus is an alien word to the child beggars and their parents. Not one of them had a nose mask in place despite their daily routine with strangers in their line of duty. Neither do the adult beggars. They do not care about sanitizer or the hand watching culture. “We don’t have money to buy these things. Sometimes, people give us, but it is not enough and since we live in the open we have no means of keeping such items,” Sanusi explained.

ALMAJIRANCI SYSTEM

A system of Almajiranci has been established in the colony, whereby the children, especially the boys, learn the Quran.

A Mallam is available in the mosque to teach the boys Islamic knowledge. The Mallam is seen as the spiritual head of the colony. The colony leaders ensure that he’s well taken care of in return.

Sanusi pointed out that the Mallam is saddled with the responsibility of teaching their children Islamic education. “He teaches them how to pray five times daily and how to recite the Quran.”

Sadly, the Arepo Bridge is home to scores of other society dregs; miscreants known as ‘Area Boys’ in local parlance, petty thieves, drug addicts and motor park thugs. Abiba and friends and scores of other girls in the colony are not immune to sexual molestation and rape from their neighbours.

SEXUAL MOLESTATION

About security measures to keep their children, especially the girls, safe from harassment and abuse, Laraba confessed there is none. “There is nothing we can do. We tell them to be careful. They are not to go beyond a point, so that I can keep an eye on them from this place that I’m sitting. Whenever I cannot see them I send out the older boys to look for them.”

Sanusi said there have been instances when the teenage girls and women in the colony have been molested and abused by miscreants in the area.

“We are at God’s mercy. We send out our children daily and we cannot follow them out. We stay here while they go out to beg. Though we tell them not to go beyond a certain point and try to keep an eye on them, there is no guarantee that they are safe. Some of our women and girls have been attacked by ‘Area Boys.’

Laraba, in between tendering to her baby and talking, reliably informed that the women find solace in the hands of men beggars to ‘buy’ security. “I met Abiba’s father when I came here. He takes care of us and ensures that we are not molested by other men in the colony.”

Equally, it is not out of place for a man in the colony to be husband to two or more women and bear children through them.

Laraba is carrying her second child since arriving in ‘her Lagos’ seven years ago. She does not know about contraceptives and has not used one before. “There are other women here that have three, four children; I have two.”

Laraba has never been to a hospital. The colony’s midwives birth their babies and give them local concoction to get through the rigour of childbirth.

It is not unusual, though, to loss some babies at birth. “The condition here is bad. We don’t have money to go to hospital and some of our children have died during childbirth,” another woman with a skinny baby with brownish hair strapped to her back, said.

Arepo/Magboro Beggars Colony is one of the many that is daily springing up in Ogun State.

OUT-OF-SCHOOL CHILDREN 

In the colony, formal education is a mirage.

For Abiba and other child beggars, going to school is not part of the options available. Laraba has banished any hope of sending any of her children to school. “School?” she asked, unable to complete the sentence.

“There is nothing like that.” Sanusi cut in. “We are at the mercy of kind-hearted people. How can we send our children to school? Maybe someday government will take pity on us and help our children acquire good education. We don’t have money. We have to beg to eat. We cannot afford good shelter or buy good clothes. We make barely enough to eat and send home to our family for their upkeep.”

Musa Sakiru, another male beggar, who hails from Katsina State, intoned that the only form of education they get is from the Mallam who teaches them the Quran in the make shift mosque.

He berated governors of northern states for not doing enough to cater for its citizens. “They are not doing anything for their people. We are suffering. That is why we leave our homes to come here. Our leaders are not taking care of us and our children. They can do better in the area of welfare.”

According to the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) 2015 survey, Nigeria accounts for one out of the world’s five out-of-school-children. “Even though primary education is officially free and compulsory, about 10.5 million of the country’s children aged 5-14 years are not in school. Only 61 percent of 6-11 years-old regularly attend primary school and only 35.6 percent of children aged 36-59 months receive early childhood education.

A review of the 2015 survey as carried out by Demographic Health Survey in conjunction with UNICEF in 2018, however, showed a massive jump of Nigeria out-of-school children from 10.5 million to 13.million.

According to the Executive Secretary of Universal Basic Education (UBEC) Hammid Bobboyi, “If you add the number of children that have been displaced and the increasing number of birth, you find out that our source in DHS conducted by UNICEF published in 2015 reveals the number of out-of-school children increased to 13.2 million. The survey is unpublished.

Former Nigeria president, Olusegun Obasanjo, upwardly reviewed the figure in November 2020 during the virtual 2020 graduation ceremony of Chrisland University Abeokuta. He put the figures of out-of-school children in Nigeria at 14million.

He said. “We have 14 million children that should be in school and are not in school. That’s more than the population of many African countries.”

Though the figure is unconfirmed, the massive job loss, insecurity, staggering inflation statistics and recession that bedeviled the country since 2020 support this assertion.

The Nigerian government through a survey carried out in 2020 by a joint force of Universal Basic Education commission (UBEC), National Education Commission (NPC), National Population Commission (NPC) and National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) place the figure of out-of-school children at 10million.

CIRCLE OF POVERTY

Abiba and friends are products of deprivation and poverty, and with unprotected sex taking place daily in the colony, Abiba may continue to rot in this hell, even having her own babies as soon as she enters puberty. And the circle of poverty continues.

There are other colonies in Warewa, Mowe, Ibafo, Oju Ore, Sango Ota, and other flourishing areas with bridges and quick access to Lagos. Their numbers are daily growing.

For example, Musa said he joined the colony in November of last year after he lost his farmland to flood at home. “I was a big farmer in Kebbi State. I lost everything; my farm, my houses and belongings. I left my family in Kebbi to come here to beg.”

Sanusi came to Magboro on the invitation of a childhood friend and started working as a labourer. “I am from Kano where I left my wife and children to make ends meet in Lagos. I stopped in Magboro and for about a year I was working as a labourer. I made some money and was thinking of going back home when I was struck by stroke.”

The illness affected his left leg and arm and in his search for cure, he used up the savings he intended to use in paying his way back home. “I was in Kano for three months but things got worse for my family and me.”

With Sanusi’s fortune all gone and his medical condition worsened, he hiked a crowded truck back to Magboro. This time around, he could no longer work, so he joined the colony. “It’s tough but I can send little money home now to cater for my family.”

With partial stroke and no form of edifying skill safe a claim to a Primary School Leaving Certificate, Sanusi was condemned to a life of begging. He became a spokesman to the colony and was of help when this reporter visited. “I never knew I could beg for food, but here I am. It is not my wish.”

RISING NUMBER OF ALMAJIRAI

The Nation’s findings showed that migration of Almajirai more than tripled in 2020 and three reasons were advanced for it.

One, in the middle of the widespread Coronavirus pandemic last year, 19 northern states forcefully evacuated thousands of almajirai from their streets as a way of fighting the scourge and also destroying the Almajiranci system.

Child beggars basically became ‘enemies of state.’ Under the lockdown, they became easy targets and were romped into jam-packed trucks back to their non-existing homes.

According to the BBC, “It was probably the biggest ever state organised mass movements of minors in Africa’s most-populous state, whose population of around 200 million, is divided roughly between Muslims and Christians.

From April, 2020, Kaduna and Kano launched the campaign declaring Almajiranci system dead in their states before other northern states joined in.

Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai spearheading the campaign said he took the opportunity to scrap the almajirai-based Quranic schools in his state.

The biggest heist of children totaling 35,000 was carried out by Kaduna State, according to Hajiya Hafsat Baba, Commissioner for Human Services and Social Development on April 22, 2020. The evacuation affected 17 states.

In retaliation, the Kano State government announced the evacuation of 524 almajiri children to neighbouring Jigawa on April 22, 2020. At about the same time, another 419 were moved to Katsina State and 195 to Kaduna. Other states affected carried out their own purgation, flushing out vulnerable children in their hundreds. On arriving at their states, some of them were quarantined and tested for COVID-19. The results were alarming as hundreds of them reportedly tested positive.

When mass testing of returning children commenced, of the 169 tested in Kaduna, 65 came out positive, while 91 confirmed cases came out of the 168 tested in Jigawa.  In Gombe, eight of the 48 children tested had COVID-19 while in Bauchi, the number was seven out of 38.

Unable to match the drive for evacuation with catering and reuniting the children to their parents, the street-wise kids escaped from the camps and returned to the streets for a while. As soon as they made enough to book their passage out of the North, they headed West and that accounted for the mass arrival of almajirai children that has been recorded since May 2020.

In May 2020, the Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency (TRACE) said its operatives intercepted a truck loaded with about 30 almajirai at Joju area of Ado Odo Local Government Area of the state. The IVECO truck with Kano registration number was loaded with people, among them 30 children-alleged to be almajirai from Kano State.

That was but one of the many trucks that landed in the West of Nigeria with scores of women and children throughout the lockdown. Most of them came in at night, beating the porous Ogun State borders but unable to cross to Lagos manned by vigilant security officers, decided to stay in the bordering towns between Ogun and Lagos states.

Security expert, Musiliu Ayeni explained that “this accounted for the huge number of child-beggars you see in Magboro, Arepo, Wawa, Mowe, Sango, Ota and other border towns of Lagos and Ogun states.

“When they found that they could not cross to Lagos, they stayed in these towns and made their abode there. In-fact if you ask them, they will tell you they are living in Lagos.”

The other notion for this mass migration was muted by Musa.

The economic downturn eclipsed by the pandemic in 2020 made a pauper of many business people, farmers and breadwinners in Northern Nigeria. “I was doing well in my business until the pandemic came and I lost everything. I sold my houses after losing my farms to flood. I migrated to beg here temporarily. When the condition improves at home I will go back.”

There are many like Musa who made the long journey to make ends meet. And some came with their wives and children.

Insecurity occasioned by Boko Haram insurgency activities in Northwest Nigeria also forced many of them to join the bandwagon to drift down west. Laraba falls into that category. She said she was forced to relocate to the West when Boko Haram sacked her village in Izghe-Borno State in 2014. “I ran for my life.”

The reality is that there are millions of child beggars living on the streets and under bridges in Nigeria’s metropolitans, cities and towns all over the Southwest region.

Residents and experts warn that the consequences are many and terrifying.

TIME BOMB

Ope Feyitimi, a Magboro resident, decried the social malaise and general condition of child beggars in the environment. “They are so many now. They are dirty and unkempt. They are nuisance to motorists and passersby. There is no where you go to in Magboro that you don’t see them. I’m scared of what bad elements can use them to perpetrate in the community. Most of them will grow up to be criminals and ‘Area Boys.’”

Late Balarabe Musa, second republic governor of Kaduna State, called it a time-bomb. “You would recall that the Boko Haram started this way, most were young except for their commanders who were above 25 years.

“Let the government institute free and compulsory education from primary to secondary level, and the Almajiri system would end.”

Idayat Hassan, Director, Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), said addressing the social and security problems associated with Almajiri system requires a holistic approach. “We need a long-term plan and not our fire brigade approach to doing things.”

Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, Primate of All Nigeria (Anglican Communion), however, said, “What people are asking is for the government to improve the lives of these boys, send them to school, and integrate them into the society. As they are now they are not helpful to the society.”

Until that happens, Abiba and other child beggars will continue to live under a harsh reality on the streets, vulnerable to molestation and deprived.

A number of suspected robbers recently arrested have attributed their foray into the underworld to their stay in the prison, with experts calling for total reform of correctional facilities and good justice administration system, reports KUNLE AKINRINADE.

In his neighbourhood in Agege, a Lagos suburb, the fear of Wale a.k.a. Walesstic was the beginning of wisdom. His name sent jitters down the spines of residents until the night the youthful member of a notorious street gang, Awawa, was arrested after his gang attacked rival gang boys in the area, resulting in the destruction of properties and break down of law and order.

Walestic was arraigned before a magistrate court in Ikeja and subsequently sent to the Kirikiri Maximum Prison, where he was remanded until his bail conditions were perfected and he regained his freedom.

But by the time the 22-year-old mechanic turned gangster returned from prison, his life was never the same again until he was felled by police bullets during an exchange of gun fire in a botched robbery operation.

Although his stay in prison was for seven months, he met a group of boys who were serving various jail terms for stealing. They struck friendship and he joined their gang as soon as they were freed. He became more daring and fiendish but was killed when his gang attacked some residents of the Alagbado suburb of the city about three years ago.

Walestic’s sad story found an encore in the deadly robbery ring of Simon Tyozenda, a native of Benue State, and Lucky Friday (24) an indigene of Delta State, who confessed that they formed their robbery gang in Kirikiri Prison.

The duo were arrested by the operatives of Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Lagos State Police Command for attempting to kill a cab driver after snatching his vehicle, a Toyota Camry saloon marked APP 145 EE on the Lekki-Epe highway on March 14, 2018.

Simon, the gang’s leader, had used his girlfriend’s mobile app to order a cab hailing driver around 11:00 p.m. and hatched a plan to lure the driver of the Toyota Camry to a desolate location, kill the driver and take away his vehicle.

According to the police, the suspects were taking the driver to a deserted axis of Lekki-Epe Expressway, Lagos, when their vehicle was stopped by RRS officers for a stop and search, while one of the suspects seated at the back of the vehicle was spotted hiding a long knife.

It was said that the two ex-convicts who were released from the Kirikiri Maximum Prison in January, 2018, had in February, 2018, snatched a Toyota Corolla marked FST 663 EZ along Badore Road, Ajah at about 2 am after killing its driver.

The body of the driver, Godfrey Ovie, dropped in Badore by the suspects, was discovered the following day by the police.

The suspects had sold the car to one Usman for N350,000 and the buyer was about moving the car to Jigawa State after paying N100,000 out of the said sum when RRS undercover arrested him.

‘How we formed robbery gang in prison’

While correctional facilities are meant to reform and rehabilitate convicts to become better citizens after serving prison terms, quite a number of ex-inmates have gone into the underworld after their release.

Simon, a former hair stylist and private security guard in Badore area of Ajah, Lagos, narrated his journey into the underworld after his days in prisons, saying: “I met my colleague, Lucky Friday in Kirikiri Prison. We became friends, and when I was released, I gave him the number of my brother for him to call me.

“When he was released, I promised him I was going to assist him to resettle properly. Since then, we have been working and operating together.”

“Our first operation was where we killed the driver of the Toyota Corrolla. He was a Taxify driver. I stabbed the guy in the stomach twice and I dropped him off the vehicle on the road in Badore, Ajah at after 2:00 a.m.

“We threw away the knives and bought new ones for the fresh operation we were arrested for.”

He added: “Before killing him, I placed the order to Taxify cab to pick us up at Lamgbasa, Lekki at past 11 p.m. Our destination was Abraham Adesanya Estate, but we needed a desolate location to snatch the vehicle from the driver.

“It was the same business that took me to Kirikiri prison. I was introduced to it by Michael. Unfortunately for me, I was arrested while Michael escaped. I spent four months behind bar. It is sad I’m being arrested again over the same business.”

Like Simon and his partner, 27-year-old robbery kingpin Francis Ogbonna’s life behind bar was the leeway to crime. He was arrested again two months after leaving Kirikiri in September 2016.

Ogbonna was arrested by the Inspector-General of Police Special Intelligence Response Team (IRT) as the brains behind the gang of car snatchers that terrorised Aguda, Ijeshatedo in Surulere and Ikotun areas of Lagos.

Four cars and a locally-made gun were recovered from Ogbonna and his gang members, Chisom Joseph and Oloko Raheem, when they were arrested in a hotel they used as hideout.

Ogbonna, a native of Umuahia South Local Government Area of Abia State, in his confessional statement, said he left the Kirikiri Medium Prison, Lagos an angry man and that he hatched the plan to start his car robbery gang while in the prison all because he wanted to correct his past mistakes.

He said: “I came to Lagos immediately after my secondary school education and was living in Surulere where I drove a taxi until 2013. That year, I relocated to the East.

“But after trying my hand at different jobs, I came back to Lagos and ventured into crime in November 2015.

“It started when one of my friends whom I went to secondary school with, Uchenna, asked if I could help drive a stolen car from Lagos to Owerri.

“I knew Uchenna was an armed robber and that the car he was talking about must have been snatched in a robbery. So, I began to move such vehicles for him. We moved mainly at night and he paid me N50,000 for each car.

“I remember delivering a Toyota Camry and a Toyota Sequea SUV. The third vehicle I moved for him was a Lexus 330 but I was arrested by some Customs officials in the process. I was later released.”

On December 13, 2015, Ogbonna was again arrested when some Customs officials stopped him and Uchenna in a vehicle they had snatched from a man in Lagos, while another member of the gang narrowly escaped.

Ogbonna said: “I was arrested and Uchenna ran away. The Customs officials took me to Lagos and handed me over to the police. I later took them to Uchenna’s house but he ran into the bush when he saw them and fled to his village. “I was charged to court and remanded in prison. At the Kirikiri Prison, I met Joseph and Raheem.  I knew them at Aguda and we normally smoked Indian hemp together.

“They knew me as a taxi driver. They told me they were also arrested for robbery. We became very close in the prison.

“In May 2016, Chisom and Raheem were released on bail while I was released in July. While in prison, I contacted Uchenna and he told me of his plan to travel out of the country because some of the men who worked for him were killed during an operation.

“I told him that he was the one who got me into trouble, and when I kept calling him, he changed his number.  I became angry because I was the only one facing the problem he put me in. I decided that my revenge was to go into armed robbery fully.”

Ogbonna would later befriend one Amos in prison, who on being freed linked him to a stolen car buyer identified simply as Alhaji and another receiver of stolen cars called Tosin.

“I told Tosin that I had no gun and he asked me to meet him. He said he would arrange a gun for me. I informed Raheem about my robbery plans and he told me he was ready to participate.

“The day after I spoke with Tosin about the gun, he came to meet me at a hotel where I lodged in Aguda, Surulere. He brought me a double-barrel locally made pistol with five cartridges.  I immediately called Raheem, Joseph and one David. They met me at the hotel and we embarked on our first operation.

“We went to Ojuelegba that night and robbed a cab driver of his vehicle. We went to Ago Palace Way and snatched a Toyota Corolla. That same night, I went to Alhaji at Cele area, and handed over the Corolla to him. I parked the taxi in Surulere. The next day, I called Alhaji to demand our money but he refused to pick my calls.

“The following day, I went with Tosin to snatch a Honda Accord at Kilo. I gave the car to Tosin. We also snatched a Toyota Camry in Aguda. We used the taxi cab we had snatched earlier to move around during these operations.

“We went to sleep that night and abandoned the taxi on a street.  We also parked the Camry on another street overnight. The following day, we drove in the Camry to snatch a Honda at Akerele in Surulere. We snatched a Toyota at Ajao Estate that same night.”

“The following week, I was in a hotel in Ikotun when Tosin brought some policemen and I was arrested.  Now, I am regretting everything I have ever done. If the police have mercy on me, I would like to become a policeman to help fight crime.”

Confessing, 22-year-old Joseph, a former barber, said he was introduced to robbery by one of his customers called Tigana.

He said: “One day, I was smoking Indian hemp with him and I told him to ‘teach me how to fish’. He collected my phone number that day and called me later.

“I went to meet him at a hotel where he bought drinks for me and introduced me to Raheem and other men. That was the first day I went out on operation with them. We drove to Victoria Island later that night and robbed a man of his car, money and phones.”

“I was arrested after strings of robbery and sent to Kirikiri Prison where I met Ogbonna,” he added.

Only prison reforms, good justice administration can ensure better life for inmates in and out of prison – Experts

Experts are of the opinion that government needs to do more about reforming the prison to ensure that inmates, especially those who are not on death row, live better lives on leaving correctional facilities.

A lawyer and rights activist, Modestus Onwordi, urged prison authorities to provide conducive environment for inmates to be properly rehabilitated and reformed for a change of attitude.

He said: “The harrowing experience of inadequate food and shelter among other terrible hygienic conditions are enough to harden the minds of inmates, so much so that some of them graduate from being petty thieves for which they are remanded or jailed into underworld kingpin after befriending their likes in the correctional facilities.

“We all know that in many of the so-called prisons or correctional facilities in the country, the space are filled up with huge number of convicts and awaiting trial inmates, who are dumped there for so long that they tend to develop a strong connection with other hardened criminals there, who would encourage them to further their involvement in heinous crime.

“The solution lies in making the environment conducive and hygienic as well as ensuring decongestion in such a way that remanded or detained inmates do not stay there for too long.”

A social worker, Johnson Dipeolu, was of the opinion that only dependable justice administration system can bring about properly reformed inmates, who can live crime-free lives outside correctional facilities.

“The facilities are over-crowded with inmates. Both hardened criminals and others who are there for lesser offences are lumped together, giving room for character influence and bonding that encourages freed inmates to get in touch and form criminal gangs.

“For me, the judiciary or courts have a key role to play by ensuring quick dispensation of justice such that awaiting trial inmates don’t stay for too long to be indoctrinated into dastardly crimes.

“Also, the police must carry out diligent investigation and jettison the over-reliance on confessional statement to prosecute suspects.

“Most times, victims of police prosecution through confessional statement tend to embrace crime as vengeance for serving jail term or being detained for offences they are innocent of.”