On June 3, 2010, Mrs. Tina Ahenkorah was feeding her two-year-old son, Emmanuel on the corridor of their little house at No. 15 Soremekun Street, Mushin, Lagos. Boy Emmanuel was safe and secure in the bosom of mummy reveling in the filial communion of a late evening repast. Suddenly there was a staccato of gunshots outside the house; on the street. Neighbourhood cult gangs were at their usual gun duel once again; residents ran helter-skelter in all directions for dear lives as guns boomed. When normalcy returned and the smoke cleared, a stray bullet had pierced little Emmanuel’s chest. He died.
Mr. Ahenkorah, Emmanuel’s father, bearer of this gruesome tale, said arrests were made after his son’s murder but no one told him how the case ended. His little son and many other neighbours killed and maimed that night were mere collateral damages in a senseless narrative of criminality and violence. Ahenkorah extended the sad dimension of the tale when he further explained that after such a gang war, the police would react by stationing an aArmoured Personnel Carrier (APC) at the hot-spots to scare the cultists. But in a few weeks, the policemen and the cultists close ranks and begin to hangout together; drinking and smoking wrapped evil weeds.
If you thought boy Emmanuel’s story was heart-rending then do not read the story of the Bellos of Idi-Oro area of Mushin, Lagos. It was Monday, January 27, 2014 at about 9 pm. Mr. Bello, who was returning from work, stopped by his wife’s shop in Amodu Street, off Akala, in Mushin. He joined his wife Musili, his 12-year-old daughter Suliat and other neighbours to while away the time in front of wifey’s shop. She had closed shop for the day and they would have left for home but awaited their little boy who was on an errand to buy fuel for use at home. Suddenly, rival gangs stirred the street with wild bursts of gunfire. As usual, everyone scampered for safety…
When the street became quiet, Mr. Bello picked his 12-year-old Suliat by the gate of the house, her head split open by bullets. His wife, Musili, who was eight months pregnant was shot in the eye and her womb was pierced by bullets. Bello lost his daughter, his wife and, of course, the pregnancy. About 15 bullet holes pierced the door of his wife’s shop; several other neighbours sustained degrees of gunshot injuries. All these were casualties in a war they knew nothing about. And in the manner of collateral damages, they got neither justice nor recompense; they simply buried their dead quietly and nursed their wounds as if they were jungle animals.
When it pleases these thugs, they simply go gay on the ‘hood as they did one Sunday morning late January at Olaiya Street, Mafoluku, Oshodi. The boys said to be numbering about 100 swooped on the community at about 2 am vandalising no fewer than 50 vehicles and buildings. Residents said that was the fourth time in a sad serial and that it was their manner of reprisal against another notorious gang in Mafoluku.
Some neighbourhoods in parts of Lagos have actually metamorphosed into gangland jungles with cultists almost fully in control and residents living at their mercy. Some of the most dreaded areas are Mushin, Idi-Oro, Fadeyi, Somolu-Bariga, Isale-Eko, Ajah. This gory fad having gone unchecked for a long time is spreading to other virgin parts of town. Unchecked, youths in some areas make capital of their nefarious activities, begin to glory in it and enjoy bragging rights thereby pushing other virgin neighbourhoods to organise their own gangs. And what is a cult gang if it is not in rivalry with another; if it is not spoiling for a bloody fight and most of all, if it is not testing its prowess in orgies of blood-letting.
That is what is witnessed almost every week in the hot-spot areas of the city these days – gangs in constant supremacy battles, trying to out-gun each other, trying to out-slaughter each other and inflict even more gruesome mayhem where the last group stopped. As they get emboldened, they get sophisticated: from riding on bikes and tricycles to using unmarked vehicles, from using axes, machetes and dane guns to pump action rifles and AK-47s. They wear bulletproof vests these days and they no longer wait for the cover of the night. The more murders they get away with, the more brazen they become and the more they look the state and federal authorities rudely in the eye. Most worrisome, the more they spread all over the state like cancer.
What Governor Fashola can do Late January, Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola hinted that he is as worried about the situation as the man on the street when he met heads of corporate organsations. He decried the activities of a group he described as “street urchins” and “area boys” who according to him, had laid siege to the state. He sought the help of the business helmsmen in curbing their menace.
While it must be noted that Lagos State under this governor has perhaps the best security strategy among states, the street urchins are sissies compared to the murderous gangs. Having said that, the state government must act fast: first, to review and update laws on cultism, arms-bearing and hard-drugs peddling and use in the state. Second, there may be need for a task squad on gangs and hard-drugs use; third, special tribunals may be needed to expedite trial and conviction and lastly, there may be need for publicity campaigns against neighbourhood gangs.
In the long run, the mushrooming of youth gangs in a fledgling city like Lagos is a failure of local and community governments. As the city grows, various levels of community administrations need grow organically with it. That is, from the landlord/tenant groups to the community development associations, LCDAs and LGAs all working and growing as one body. With such strong linkages, everything in between – family units, schools, hospitals, youth associations, vigilance groups, civic centres, etc. will be under their purview. Today, there is a total disconnect. Hardly anybody knows his councillor anymore and most LCDAs don’t have nary playgrounds where young boys can play ‘set’ as was the case when we were growing up.
As Lagos strives to take its place among world’s modern cities, we must not allow this monster of youth gangs to fouls up the good work going on in the state. Let’s take some drastic actions to wrestle it to the ground.
Jonathan on 2015 shuttle while Borno burns
What irony it was that while President Goodluck Jonathan was on a political shuttle in the southwest of Nigeria last weekend, nourishing his 2015 dreams, the northwest of Nigeria was under siege from hoodlums. As the President moved from one palace to the other, from Ife to Oyo and then Badagry, courting the royal fathers and oiling the machine of his 2015 presidential battle royale, his soldiers were being outgunned in Borno and innocent Nigerians were freely butchered as if they were mere cattle.
Why should we trust Jonathan a second time if he has failed now to protect peace-loving and law-abiding peasants of Nigeria? If any part of Nigeria can be invaded and over-run for five hours without any response from our government then it can be safely said that we have no government. By the way, royal fathers don’t win votes.
