Raimi Asegbe, 26, prowled the streets with habitual grace on a Thursday evening in Ilupeju. The day was October 30 and as he picked his way through the Lagos neighbourhood, death kept pace at his heels with the savage intent of a beast.
Few minutes past 8pm, while worshippers at a nearby mosque completed Ishai, the Muslim evening prayer, five young men emerged from the shadows on motorcycles. At their arrival, they fired random shots into the air apparently to scare people. They were looking for Asegbe.
No sooner they sighted him on the road than they hit him with a metal object to weaken him. Asegbe, according to an eye witness, tried to run but he was overpowered. The gang of five descended upon him with consummate brutishness and skill; cruising with bizarre dexterity, the assailants, believed to be members of a notorious cult group, shot Asegbe at close range, killing him on the spot.
For about 20 minutes, the neighbourhood was terrified by the gory incident. Some residents said the assailants did not leave immediately after the incident. They allegedly threatened to kill more people.
Asegbe reportedly belonged to a rival gang that invaded Kayode Street in Onipanu, Mushin two days earlier on Tuesday October 28 to be precise killing two persons from the opposing gang that killed him in a reprisal attack.
A resident, who saw the late Asegbe 30 minutes before he was killed, said: “I saw him with a lady and another man in Iseyin Street at 7:30pm. He stopped by at a house and played with some people for about 15 minutes before he left. He walked towards Oyewole Street but 30 minutes later, we heard gunshots. We initially did not know where the shots were fired but I later got a call from a friend, who lives on Ilupeju Road, telling me that Raimi had been killed by a five-man gang. We rushed to the scene and saw his lifeless body in pool of blood.”
The late Asegbe is survived by aged parents, three wives and seven children.
Asegbe’s sin
On October 28, two youths were killed by the Supreme Eiye Confraternity (SEC) at a restaurant on Kayode Street in Onipanu. The deceased, said to be members of Black Axe Confraternity, were reportedly having a good time when the opposing Eiye cult group stormed the restaurant to attack them. The late Asegbe was allegedly a SEC member, hence, his brutal murder is suspected to be a reprisal attack.
Similar attacks
From January, several youths have been killed in the ongoing gang war ravaging Mushin, Fadeyi and Onipanu in Lagos. The attacks are customarily carried out in mafia-execution style. For instance, in February, an alleged member of Eiye confraternity, known as Segun, was killed in Mushin by a bandit group led by a youth known as Oyinbo (his real name unknown) on Ajisegiri Street. The late Segun was said to be the hit man for SEC.
Segun was stabbed several times with a dagger on the neck and chest before he was shot to death by his assailants. Prior to his execution, the deceased had reportedly gone on a mission to kill Oyinbo, an outlaw in the area. When he did not see him, he reportedly called Oyinbo on the phone and asked him to come out from his hideout for a fight. Oyinbo, however, told the late Segun to give him 10 minutes to finish what he was doing and promised to meet him wherever he wished for the fight.
Twenty minutes later, Segun was killed. He was attacked at a local canteen, where he had gone to eat, perhaps in preparation for the grisly encounter with Oyinbo. Three weeks later, a member of Oyinbo’s group, identified as Lawal, was murdered in revenge. The reprisal was done before Lawal’s family members in Iyana Ipaja ,Lagos, where he fled to escape being killed.
In June, Oyinbo reportedly killed another member of Eiye confraternity at a meeting and disappeared to escape arrest.
In August, the late Segun’s SEC group however, recorded a ‘breakthrough’ killing Oyinbo in a lottery kiosk located on Ogunmokun Street. The Nation investigations revealed that the incident happened in the presence of an anti-riot police squad stationed in the area to forestall violence. No arrest was made; the assailants, who, witnesses said, were armed with sophisticated guns, left the scene without confrontation by anyone. From September, more than eight youths have been killed in reprisals.
In another development, a a recent fracas erupted with the killing of Sheriff Alasia, a lottery agent, on October 13. The late Sheriff was attacked in his kiosk in Ogunmokun area of Mushin.
In the evening of the same day, Tunde, who was reportedly one of the late Sheriff’s assailants, was shot dead in reprisal and his head was chopped off.
The police recovered the severed head of a 28-year-old Tunde, who was killed while smoking indian hemp in Akala street. The late Tunde was said to be a Fadeyi resident and his head was recovered on Ojelade Street, Fadeyi, on October 16 by security operatives from the Alakara Police Station.
A resident said: “Tunde’s body was recovered by the police immediately after he was killed but his head remained missing for almost four days. The killers were playing soccer with the deceased’s head in the neighbourhood and we reported to the police. On Thursday night, policemen came to Ojelade Street to recover the head.”
Mushin…the descent
Mushin has maintained a reputation of violence, perhaps since the creation of Lagos State. But this could not be said of Ilupeju, a nearby community, which used to be relatively peaceful. But in the last five years, the once quiet neighbourhood has witnessed vicious attacks that have claimed the life of many, including personal friends and acquaintances.
From the campuses on to the streets
The Nation investigations reveal the ugly manifestations of confraternity wars in Nigeria. Until recently, cult activities were an exclusive feature of Nigerian tertiary institutions. Frequent fracas erupted between rival cult groups on university and polytechnic campuses but hardly spilled to the streets.
“It was like an unwritten rule of engagement. Rival cult groups attacked each other on the campuses but no group launched an attack against a member of another cult group outside the campus. No one dared attack a rival cult member at home. Each cult member’s home was like a hallowed ground, a sanctuary that evoked the respect of all and sundry. That was because we respected the institution of the family. Once when we went to hit (attack) one notorious Eiye (SEC) boy, we met his mother and sisters in his room. We could not drop (kill) him like we planned to but we brushed (beat) him severely. And that was even in his rented apartment outside the school campus,” disclosed Felix, a banker and former ‘butcher’ with the Black Axe confraternity.
It’s a short haul from Felix’s era and the former ‘hitman’ admitted his shock over the metamorphosis of campus confraternities and spill over of their activities on to the streets.
In Lagos, for instance, erstwhile peaceful neighbourhoods of Bariga, Festac, Ojodu, Mushin, Ojo, Somolu, Okokomaiko, Yaba, Surulere, Lagos Island and Ikorodu have in recent times imploded to fierce clashes between rival cult groups, leading to deaths and destruction of properties worth millions of naira.
In Mushin, an enduring confraternity war has replaced the turf battles and armed robbery that characterised the area. At least five persons, among them, a final year Nigerian student who schooled at the North American University Houdegbe, in Benin Republic, were killed in a renewed cult war in the area. The victim, Adeolu Otenaike, 26, left Benin Republic on March 18, 2013 to celebrate the purchase of a car with his friends. He was reportedly accosted while seeing his friends off, beaten and shot in the head and neck.
One of his friends simply identified as Chinedu, who managed to escape, reportedly sustained injuries. The same day, four other persons whose identities were given simply as Martins, Olosa, Fadeyi and Adeyemi were also killed at different spots in Mushin.
Rival cultists in Somolu and Ketu areas of Lagos clashed recently, leaving four persons dead and several others injured. In Ajelogo area of Ketu, Nigeria, it was gathered that suspected members of Eiye confraternity stormed a suspected rival’s home in the wee hours of Monday morning. They flung his nine-month old baby off the bed, dragged him outside and clubbed him to death but not until they had taken turns in raping his wife in front of him.
The inclusion of street urchins, commercial bus and motorcycle drivers, according to Biodun Gbolagade a.k.a Simple, a bar operator and Buccaneer, “has worsened everything.”
Gbolagade bemoaned the inclusion of motor park urchins into the various confraternities, particularly the Buccaneer, SEC and Black Axe groups, as a worrisome development. “These hoodlums that they are blending (initiating) lack proper orientation. Consequently, they conduct themselves like ordinary hoodlums that they are, maiming and killing each other and innocent members of the public at the slightest provocation,” lamented Gbolagade.
Indeed, street urchins and members of transport unions in the areas openly display their membership of cult groups. It is no longer a strange sight to see commercial motorcycle operators known as Okada riders, display the colours of the various cult groups that they belong to. Those claiming membership of SEC display the blue colour, Buccaneer, yellow colour and the Black Axe’s black colour. On several occasions, clashes erupt over non-members allegedly donning colours perceived as symbols of a particular cult group.
A new manifestation of the confraternity ogre reposes in cultists’ deployment as mercenaries and land grabbers by influential members of the public. In rural areas of Itele, Iyana Ipaja, Ogijo and Igbo Olomu, land merchants frequently employ cultists as ajagungbale, land grabbers or mercenaries over land matters.
Lagos gangs at a glance
In recent past, Lagos has suffered the onslaught of certain fearful gangs terrorising the mainland, Isale-Eko and Stadium/Barrack, axis of Lagos Island. The most notorious amongst them was the Kainkain gang of Isale Eko; this gang was persistently blamed for serial criminal acts including rape, mobile phone theft, pick-pocketing and armed robbery. The leader of the group, ‘Surutu,’ allegedly relocated from the neighbourhood after he was shot.
And residents of Ajegunle otherwise known as Lagos’ jungle city will not forget in a hurry, their ordeal in the hands of One Million Boys (OMB), a gang of hoodlums that terrorised the area before they were arrested by the police. At inception, 20 boys in Ajegunle united to form the association with the original intent to fight perceived injustices synonymous with the township. Subsequently, the gang grew in strength and numbers and soon they formed a vigilance group to checkmate and fight crime and criminality in the community. But somewhere along the way, some members of the association hijacked it and turned a hitherto crime fighting group into a sinister one; terrorising the entire community, raping hapless women and robbing defenseless residents.
Residents revealed that the group metamorphosed into a gang of outlaws. “Before they invaded any community or street, they usually wrote a letter to inform the residents. They sent the letter through a courier, usually a minor, to the head of that street or the landlord association. And when they come, they would rob from one house to the other, raping young girls and even married women. There was one bizarre situation when members of the group allegedly raped a pregnant woman to death and forced a father to sleep with his daughter with a threat that if he did not comply, he would be killed. Of course, the man complied with their wish, while they laughed maniacally.
They operated with such impunity until their operation in Agugu Street, where they killed a young man, after robbing a resident. The community could not take it any longer and they sent an SOS to the Commissioner of Police, Umaru Manko, who issued a directive for their arrest. The police was able to arrest over 400 suspected members of the group.
The raid was led by Area B Command Apapa, comprising Apapa, Ajegunle, Tolu, Trinity, Amukoko, Ijora Badia, Layeni and Kirikiri Police divisions. “The onslaught was led by the Area Commander, Mohammed Alli.
Ijaya Boys (Minstrels of fear) comprise a group of 17 boys, all school drop-outs except their leader who never attended high school. The latter, a former butcher, assembled young boys in his area in Alimosho to form a gang with a purported mission to right the wrongs in their community. No sooner they formed the gang, than he led them in two bloody turf wars in which they succeeded in dislodging two former gangs that held sway in their neighbourhood. They operate with knives, cudgels, guns and dangerous charms.
Several gangs are linked to criminal operations between Surulere and Lagos Island, where several house burglaries and armed robberies are perpetrated and the stolen valuables are sold often at ridiculous prices. Most gangs are principally concerned with fighting and conquering other young male gangs from one street or district to another in violent turf wars to establish their dominance. After establishing their dominance in any neighbourhood, they engage in a peculiar brand of hustle by which they perpetrate scams, bullying, political violence and armed robbery, according to Ikuomola Adediran Daniel (PhD), Department of Sociology, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State.
Living by the street code
Analysing the street code of the ubiquitous gang member, Dr. Ikuomola stated that within the social world of the gang member, familial and peer group attachments are essential in terms of ‘back up’ and possible retribution for an act of bullying, violence and robbery. “As such, when a group of boys from ‘rush’ or ‘jack’ a young person either from their hood or a surrounding neighbourhood with no obvious familial or peer group attachments, most young males in public will just shrug their shoulders as if to say ‘well that’s just how things are on the street.’ However, in private the young males will acknowledge that the assaulters involved were out of order, they shouldn’t have picked on an innocent.”
Yet the code of the street dictates that sympathy for the victim is at best fleeting and generally non-sympathetic, as the commonly held view amongst young males is that ‘they’ (victim) should not have allowed themselves to be picked on so easily. On the other hand, when the victim is a known but disliked individual usually a rapscallion who does not play by the rules, perhaps he attacks people indiscriminately, harassing young girls at street corners and therefore creating lots of potential enemies within the neighbourhood, the code of the street determines that the defaulter probably got what he deserved, as he was beginning to believe too much ‘in his own hype,’ running about upsetting ‘too many of the area boys’ in the neighbourhood.
Psychology of a gang-banger
According to Omotoke Iyunade, a social psychologist, the harsh living conditions and endemic poverty in the slums wreak untold havoc on the inhabitants, the children in particular. “Such children having undergone a gruesome childhood characterised by an insidious socialisation process eventually mature into what could be termed damaged youth.”
According to her, young people in the slums are often the victim of non-existent or dysfunctional family structures, lack of education and opportunities, race and class-based discrimination. This militarizes them and forces them to adopt a hostile attitude to the world. Ultimately, they are considered enemies of the state by law enforcers and the society at large and this is due to their hostile disposition and inclinations for violence.
Shanty life is such that vulnerable children and youths are exposed to considerable amount of hazards and they face a number of problems ranging from financial problems to harassment and extortions from police and the ubiquitous area boys; eventually, many of such vulnerable youth evolve to become area boys. As area boys, they learn to perpetuate the insecurity, severe beatings and fighting, sexual abuse (especially of the females) and health hazards that they had erstwhile been exposed to as vulnerable minors.
According to Patrick Edewor, PhD, Department of Sociology, Covenant University, the presence of street children (and homeless children and youth) is an indictment of the way the society construes its priorities. “These children and youths suffer considerable amount of hardship. Although they are ignored by the society, they hope to become productive members of the society,” he noted.
Gangs of area boys are composed of mainly young males aged 11 to 25 years and they are a typical characteristic of the state. These gangs provide young people with a sense of belonging and social identity, and as they operate in shadow economies, they make up for the lack of educational and job opportunities.
Within gangs, young men find a way to make a living. Many of them primarily commit serious crimes such as robbery and burglary with the intention of exchanging the stolen goods for cash. The money earned from such crimes is invested in patronising sex workers, gambling and other guilty pleasures. Others expend it on status enhancement drives such as ‘looking good,’ eating out, smoking cannabis, cocaine or crack, and clubbing.
In Lagos, many gang members and area boys act as violent brokers in parallel structures, having created an income for themselves via forced extortions (owo ile) and narcotics peddling, playing guard of individual property or public space in situations of inadequate or ineffective police presence. Over time, they have become an accepted part of the urban landscape even as they become willing tools and available mercenaries for various forms of political, ethnic and religious criminal contracts in the process.
Some gang bangers, however, start out from promising beginnings. According to a childhood acquaintance of late Segun, who simply identified himself as Adewale, the latter started out promisingly. “I met him at an evening coaching class on Shokunbi Street in Mushin. Although, he was a year junior, we used to attend mathematics class together. He was brilliant. But when he was unable to gain admission into a higher institution, he became frustrated and joined a gang of street urchins. He gained an infamous popularity in 2010 when he reportedly shot someone 35 times in the thigh at a street carnival in Onipanu. Since then, he became notorious and a serial killer until he was killed in February by a gang of cultists.”
Late Shina Ajah also presents a peculiar case. Late Ajah, a burly figure, was 24 at the time of his death. He was killed in front of an eatery in Onipanu, Mushin. According to Wale, Shina Ajah was violent and showed no mercy to anyone who dared cross him. “There was an incident, which took the residents of Oluwakemi Street in Onipanu by surprise. He reportedly stormed a christening ceremony and forcefully took away the eight-day-old baby in the full glare of the residents. What was the baby’s sin? The baby’s father, who is a tout, had a disagreement with the late Shina Ajah days earlier. Ajah threatened to cut the baby into pieces should his father refuse to come out of hiding. It took the heartfelt plea of clerics, who came for the ceremony to get the late Ajah to release the baby to her mother. A few months after the incident, Shina Ajah was shot dead by an unknown gang.
Stemming the menace
According to Dr. Ikuomola, a youthful population can be a significant and positive asset to a country and its development, but if left to its own devices, that is, marginalised and exploited, they can also turn against the society and become a force of destruction. The latter suggested that in order to prevent such situation, the government should create an environment that will improve the quality of nation’s education system through investments in free technical education that will have meaningful impact on the youth and the quest for self reliance and development. In the long run this will influence and increase youths employment outcomes. He also suggested that “policies should be put in place at all levels for young men and women to have the same opportunities in job prospecting. Emphasis should also be placed on vulnerable groups, especially children and youths; to avoid child labour and exploitation, street life and the breeding of street urchins in cities.”
While suggestions like Ikuomola’s may in part be the palliative to the scourge of area boys in the state, further priority strategies may have to be tailored to the reorientation of the family structure, parenting and the Lagos youth, according Morenike Abass, a school proprietor and educational psychologist. Exactly how fragile the situation is in the state is vividly illustrated by the exploits and premature deaths of random teenagers like Asegbe, Shina Ajah, Segun and so many others.
