The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Hoodlums

  • Hoodlums set parties’ vehicles ablaze

    Hoodlums in Anambra State have set ablaze three party campaign vehicles.

    The incident occurred on Wednesday in Nnewi.

    The vehicles belonging to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC) were reportedly burnt around 8:30pm at locations in the industrial town.

    The Nation learnt that the perpetrators, about six, were said to be armed with weapons. They carried out the act unchallenged.

    It was gathered that one of the vehicles, a Toyota Siena, belonging to the APC, was vandalised and burnt where it was parked.

    “The vehicle belongs to the APC candidate for Nnewi North State Constituency, Prince Ken Anazodo, a source said.

    He added: “The other vehicle belonging to the PDP candidate was burnt beyond recognition on the Old Nnewi-Onitsha Road, while the third one was set ablaze near Egbu Umuenem Otolo quarter.”

    It was learnt that the driver of the burnt vehicle on Old Nnewi-Onitsha Road was said to have parked his vehicle to buy a recharge card when the hoodlums struck.

    Anazodo said he had reported the matter to the police and Department of State Services (DSS) and was preparing a petition to back it up.

    Police spokesman Haruna Mohammed said two vehicles were burnt.

    “The vehicles belonging to APC and PDP candidates were set ablaze by unknown miscreants,” he added.

    Mohammed said the case was being investigated, noting that efforts were on to arrest the suspects.

     

  • Hoodlums clash over money in Oshodi

    Ahead of Saturday’s elections, some residents of Baderin Street in Oshodi, Lagos Mainland, have expressed worry over protracted clashes between two groups of hoodlums suspected to be members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW).

    They said they would relocate their families from the neighbourhood for fear of attack.

    The Nation learnt that crisis broke out in the area on Sunday night after a House of Representatives candidate gave the hoodlums ‘appeasement’ money.

    It was gathered that a faction was alleged to have removed part of the money, which led to a fight.

    Three persons were reportedly injured, while shops, campaign billboards and posters were damaged.

    A source said the politician sent the money to the hoodlums.

    A resident, who identified himself as Femi, said the clash continued on Monday morning, forcing shop owners to flee for safety.

    He said: “We have not enjoyed peace since Sunday night. People are already moving their families out of this area for fear of another attack. The fight occurred between NURTW hoodlums loyal to two parties. A politician gave them money and they disagreed on the sharing formula.

    “They pelted one another with stones and bottles. A man was stabbed. Many people sustained injuries while running away from the scene. The clash happened around 6pm. It continued on Monday morning. People closed their shops and ran away because the hoodlums carried weapons.

    “The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) personnel later came to restore peace. After leaving, the hoodlums returned in the evening and started fighting again.

    “On Tuesday afternoon, they continued the fight. The police and soldiers thereafter intervened by quelling the fight. People are afraid because this is election period. These hoodlums may return again.

    “I don’t think anyone died in the clash, but it was really serious.”

    Another resident, Emeka, appealed to Police Commissioner Zubairu Muazu to ensure that more policemen are deployed in the area.

    When our correspondent visited the area yesterday, there was tension. Most people declined to comment on the issue.

    Some All Progressives Congress (APC) members in the community, who spoke to our reporter, alleged that thugs loyal to a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) House of Representatives candidate caused the fight.

    They said the candidate came with some thugs around 5pm on Sunday, who vandalised APC’s campaign posters and billboards.

    However, a petty trader accused APC supporters of causing the crisis, alleging that they stabbed a PDP supporter.

    Police spokesman Chike Oti, a Chief Superintendent (CSP), confirmed the incident, saying only one person was stabbed.

    Oti said 20.persons were arrested, adding that peace had been restored.

  • Hoodlums injure 10 in Ondo

    Hoodlums, suspected to be political thugs, yesterday attacked residents of Ala Elefuson community in Idanre Local Government Area of Ondo State.

    No fewer than 10 persons were said to have been injured.

    Sources said the palliative measures by some members of a party to grade the road leading to the area, triggered the attack.

    It was learnt that about 30 hoodlums invaded the community and attacked the operator of the grader.

    He was said to have been beating to a pulp for daring to embark on the grading of the road to gain political sympathy.

    Read also: Govt advises power firms to be less dependent on forex

    An eyewitness said the hoodlums were angry with the residents for allowing members of a party to facilitate the grading of the road leading to the community.

    He said the thugs believed that the grading was carried out to score cheap political point ahead of the general election.

    A community leader decried the incident, describing it as barbaric.

    Police spokesman Femi Joseph was not available for comments.

     

  • Hoodlums attack Adamawa community

    Hoodlums have attacked Bare, a community in Numan Local Government Area of Adamawa State.

    The gunmen torched houses and other structures, including a Catholic seminary.

    The Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Yola, Stephen Mamza, confirmed the destruction of the seminary.

    He lamented that the authorities did not deploy security personnel in time.

    Mamza said he learnt that the hoodlums stormed the community and operated unhindered for hours.

    “Our reverend father’s house was burnt down. They have torched all the houses. My parishioners have run away. Nobody can live there,” the bishop said.

    Adamawa Police Command said the attackers torched houses. It did not, however, confirm that the seminary was among the houses razed.

    Spokesman Othman Abubakar said the report before him did not indicate the houses set ablaze.

    He said: “There was an attack. Houses were burnt down, but nobody died. We have deployed our men to restore peace.”

  • Hoodlums on the loose

    There is pervasive fear all over the country that hoodlums, street urchins and cultists are set to take over control over the space nationwide. A taste of what to expect was the random shooting at the governorship election campaign launch of the All Progressives Congress (APC) held at Ikeja, Lagos, on Tuesday, where three journalists were wounded and many others, too, rushed to the hospital. Preliminary investigation showed that it was a fallout of power contest between two factions of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW).

    In December 2018, the Lagos State Police Commissioner disclosed that 36 cult members had been arrested in various parts of the state, with many already charged to court and remanded in prison custody.

    The situation is not different in Ibadan, Oyo State, where hoodlums operated in parts of the city freely, razing about 30 houses and shops, looting stores and inflicting injury on  innocent residents and passersby. It, too, as was the case at the APC, Lagos rally, was said to be a result of a bloody clash between factions of some gangs.

    In Ogun State, the police announced that 23 cult members gathered for initiation in Ilaporu, Awa-Ijebu, were rounded up before they could be moved into another frenzy of mass destruction.

    One feature common to this development is that they are mainly young men and women, operating under the influence of dangerous substances and benefitting from proliferation of arms in the country. It is an indication that the times are perilous, and unless something is done to fundamentally tackle the problems, the future may be bleak. The security situation in the country is already incredible. Armed robbers and kidnappers are on free reign all over, insurgency has become full blown war, with local government areas held, major roads sealed and military formations falling.

    From the North East, the wave has spread to the North West states of Kaduna, Zamfara and Katsina, where armed bandits have constantly overwhelmed the security forces by wielding superior weapons. We now have a class of low lifers who are determined to take it out on the elite and the society. In the far North, the almajiri, an established group of street urchins, are always available to wreak havoc for political, communal or religious reasons. In the West, they are the touts, who go about killing, with some teaming up in cults and others offering service as professional assassins.

    Both in the North and South, the killers are emboldened and armed by politicians at election periods. They are deployed to snatch ballot boxes, disrupt the voting or collation process or intimidate opponents. After the elections, when they are discharged, they find other uses for the sophisticated weapons, as militants, insurgents, robbers, assassins or just members of cults and menacing gangs. As borne out in the narration of the build-up to the daring robbery of banks in Offa, Kwara State, last year, yesterday’s discharged thugs are today’s robbers. They move freely, convinced that their godfathers are able to see them through arrest and prosecution.

    It is another election season, the security forces should resolve to act dispassionately and professionally to cure the society of this thriving societal ill. Politicians found to keep armed thugs should be brought to book to serve as deterrence to others, otherwise, a bomb, worse than the Boko Haram menace is ticking to consume all in no distant time.

  • Hoodlums rob Aba warehouse

    A five-man robbery gang yesterday at Hospital Road, near Aba Area Command, Aba attacked a tricycle warehouse and stole an undisclosed amount of money.

    The robbers, according to reports, came in two tricycles, pretending they wanted to buy goods.

    The Nation learnt that the workers sustained injuries after the robbers beat them up. They were robbed at gunpoint.

    Read also: Court remands four for alleged cultism, kidnap

    An eyewitness, who identified himself as Kingsley, said efforts to alert the policemen at the nearby Aba Area Command failed, as they refused to respond to distress calls.

    He said: “I was in my shop when they came. One of my neighbours escaped through the back door to call policemen at Aba Area Command and Central Police Station, but to our surprise, they refused to come.

    “The robbers came in two tricycles, carrying guns and other weapons. They stole money.

  • Hoodlums attack APC deputy governorship candidate’s home in Makurdi

    Barely 24 hours after he was officially pronounced the running mate to the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Emmanuel Jime, hoodlums yesterday raided the home of Sam Ode in Makurdi, the Benue State capital.

    Almost two months after Jime became APC governorship candidate, efforts to choose a running mate for him were deadlocked.

    It took intervention of the party’s stakeholders in Benue South and its State Leader, Senator George Akume, to settle for Ode, a former Minister of State for Niger Delta.

    But after his name was made public, hoodlums brandishing knives, axes, cutlasses and clubs suspected to be cultists stormed his HUDCO Quarters in Makurdi at 4 a.m yesterday.

    Confirming the incident on phone to The Nation, Ode said he was not at home when the hoodlums stormed his house.

    “My security guards told me that some men armed with knives, axe, clubs and other weapons forced their way into my house and asked after me, even though I was not at home. I suspect they were after my life,” he said.

    The former minister said the matter was reported to security agencies.

    Ode, who is also a former Chairman of Otukpo Local Government Area, was also the Special Adviser to the Governor on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs before former President Goodluck Jonathan appointed him Minister of State for Niger Delta.

    He contested the 2015 governorship primary and lost.

    He was a participant of the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Plateau State.

    Police spokesman Moses Yamu, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), could not be reached last night as his phone was switched off.

     

  • Hoodlums rob Guardian Editor, others

    Hoodlums yesterday in broad daylight attacked motorists on the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, dispossessing them of their valuables.

    Among those attacked was the Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian, Mr Debo Adesina.

    He was robbed of his phone, cash, wrist watch, wallet containing bank cards, documents in an attache case and other valuables Adesina was injured by the hoodlums who went from car to car smashing the windows around 5:30pm.

  • Hoodlums attack journalist in Kwara

    Political thugs suspected to be loyal to an All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirant in Kwara State have allegedly assaulted the state correspondent of Daily Trust newspaper, Mrs. Romoke W. Ahmad.

    The thugs accused her of giving bad publicity to their principal.

    Mrs. Ahmad was allegedly attacked at the APC party secretariat on the old Ilorin/Jebba Road while she covered a protest rally organised by the hoodlums. She lost some of her valuables in the incident.

    It took the intervention of her colleagues and law enforcement agents to secure her.

    Mrs. Ahmad said the thugs allegedly acted on instructions by the brother to the governorship aspirant, Muhammed Kudu, who was at the scene.

    She said she was deceived into attending the rally organised by the Abdullahi Yaman support Group, saying Kudu was earlier seen discussing with the thugs and pointing at her before the incident.

    She said: “I was invited by one of my colleagues to cover a protest at the APC secretariat. On getting to the scene, one Muhammed Kudu called me and said he asked them to invite me for a purpose. I demanded for the purpose but he refused to tell me and said I will know later.

    “He later called some thugs and discussed with them, who then ran to me and started shouting, saying I was the one who wrote a story about Abdullahi Yaman that he defected. I asked them which story but they could not say anything but instead invited other thugs and Yaman’s supporters who had come for the rally and started beating me…”

    “They spoilt everything on me while the thugs went to my car to take note of my vehicle number and threatened to deal with me mercilessly.”

    Mrs. Ahmad said she complained at the police command and wrote a petition against the governorship aspirant and his brother, over threats to her life, her children and her property.

    Police spokesman Ajayi Okasanmi decried the attack on journalists. He promised that the command would the people.

  • Hoodlums torch party secretariat in Ijebu community

    Suspected hoodlums have razed the All Progressives Congress (APC) secretariat in Atiba-Ijebu, Odogbolu, Ogun State.

    Eyewitnesses said the incident occurred around 11 p.m last Friday after Adekunle Akinlade was announced on television as winner of the party’s governorship primary.

    Mr Dapo Abiodun was declared winner by APC National Working Committee (NWC).

    Eyewitnesses said some protesters against the declaration of Akinlade as winner of the primaries, under the cover of darkness, set the building ablaze and escaped.

    The police in Odogbolu confirmed the incident.

    They said investigation was ongoing into the incident.

    Effort to reach the Chairman of the State Mobilisation Committee to Governor Ibikunle Amosun and leader of APC in Odogbolu, Otunba Babatunde Onakoya, who owns the property, were unsuccessful.

    Onakoya was said to have gone to Abeokuta, the state capital, for some party assignments.