How secret cults, transport unions, others act as breeding grounds for thuggery
Armed youths, including street urchins, motor park touts, ex-militants, members of transport unions and cultists recruited by unscrupulous politicians as thugs to harass opponents and commit electoral fraud are metamorphosing into armed robbers, kidnappers and other forms of anti-social elements, reports KUNLE AKINRINADE.
It was a few minutes past 1 pm on January 23, 2015. High-spirited members of an independent campaign team of the All Progressives’ Congress (APC) converged on Mosan-Okunola Local Council Development Area in Lagos. With a band and a convoy of cars, they moved round the neighbourhoods of the council area, canvassing votes for the party’s governorship candidate, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode.
But the carnival-like rally was soon turned into a scary adventure at Boys Town axis of Ipaja-Ayobo Road as the campaigners were attacked by thugs who were driving past in some vehicles with the inscription of People’s Democratic Party (PDP). They did not only confront the campaigners, they started shooting sporadically, killing one person, injuring five others and vandalising no fewer than 10 vehicles.
Panic-stricken residents of the neighbourhood scampered into safety as the deceased person was shot for displaying APC sourvenirs. Even the incumbent Lagos State Commissioner for Employment and Wealth Creation, Mrs Uzamat Akinbile-Yussuf, only escaped death by a whisker as the thugs chased after her car.
An eyewitness of the incident had said: “The APC members were holding a peaceful rally to solicit support for their candidates in the impending elections when they were attacked by PDP supporters who were also passing by. As a matter of fact, the PDP supporters were heading towards Iyana Ipaja in their vehicles when they suddenly turned back and ran after the APC supporters.
“Before we knew what was happening, the PDP thugs had opened fire on the APC campaigners, resulting in the death of an innocent resident, while about five persons were injured. Two of the victims are now in critical conditions. Ten vehicles were vandalised while the people injured have been taken to a hospital.”
National menace
In a similar incident, armed thugs on October 25, 2017 attacked members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) who had converged on the presidential campaign office of the former governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Sule Lamido. Lamido had gone to the campaign office to inspect ongoing work at the building located on Rabbah Road and was welcomed by a crowd of supporters. The attack came shortly after Lamido addressed his supporters at the occasion.
In Ebonyi State, no fewer than five persons were injured at Ugwulangwu area of Ohaozara Local Government Area of the state by suspected political thugs working for the PDP on February 5, 2018. The victims included Paul Okorie, Nnachi Okoro, John Ogbonnaya, and two other members of the party. The gun-wielding thugs numbering more than 30 were said to have brutalised the victims who ended up with varying degrees of injuries.
Speaking to newsmen on the incident, Okorie recalled that the attackers invaded the venue where party members were holding a meeting preparatory to the visit of the APC State Working Committee members scheduled for February 9.
He said: “We had scheduled a meeting of a section of Ohaozara Local Government Area of APC for the three wards in Ugwulangwu, preparatory to the visit of the SWC of our party for the continuous voter registration sensitisation exercise.
“The meeting commenced peacefully at about 5 pm and was going on smoothly when midway, some hoodlums came in and disrupted it.
“At a point, they went back and we thought they had gone and continued with our meeting. But suddenly, they came in with more than 30 men in three branded buses, all armed with different kinds of dangerous weapons.
“They shot sporadically and we were thoroughly clubbed and beaten. You can see the cuts and bruises all over my body. They escaped in their vehicles and also took our mobile phones, money and other valuables.”
Destruction of democratic institutions
Like the attack in Lagos, politicians all over the country are in the habit of using thugs to intimidate the opposition during party primaries or electioneering campaigns. But their activities are not restricted to violent attacks on the opposition to their principals. Events in the recent past have shown that thugs are also hired to snatch ballot boxes, aid stuffing of ballot boxes, seize the mace and disrupt proceedings during plenary sessions in legislative houses.
In 2005, chaos took over Ibadan, Oyo State capital, when thugs, led by one Lateef Eleweomo, a loyalist of the deceased strong man of Ibadan politics, Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu, invaded the Oyo State House of Assembly in broad daylight, chased out majority of the lawmakers and aided renegade lawmakers who were clearly in the minority to preside over the adoption of impeachment motion of the then governor of the state, Senator Rasheed Ladoja. Policemen drafted to the scene could not salvage the situation as the armed thugs who had gained control of the assembly complex exchanged fire with the minions of law.
In a gestapo manner during the 2015 general elections in Ebonyi State, suspected thugs invaded many polling booths, carting away ballot boxes and other electoral materials. At Onuwakpu Market Square in Ikwo Local Government Area, hoodlums wielding AK-47 rifles, shot into the air to scare voters and officials away before snatching the materials.
Similar incidents were witnessed at Nsokara in Ezza South Local Government Area and in other parts of the state. The member representing Ikwo/Ezza South Constituency, Tob Okwuru, said the attacks were perpetrated by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
In a similar vein, armed men suspected to be political thugs reportedly snatched ballot boxes during the 2015 re-run election for governorship and House of Assembly in Ogbor Uvuru, Aboh Mbaise, LGA and Omuma Oru East Council area of Imo State.
In another instance, suspected thugs recently invaded the Senate chamber of the National Assembly on April 18, 2018, forcibly carting away the mace, the parliamentary instrument of authority, during plenary. The incident, which coincided with the unexpected entry of the then suspended Senator Ovie Omo- Agege, caused a temporary suspension of plenary as senators went into executive session.
Deadly assignments
While political thugs are usually well mobilised with money and ammunition, not a few of them have met their waterloo in the course of executing their benefactors’ assignments.
For instance, the crisis rocking the Oyo State chapter of PDP ended on a fatal note on December 30, 2010 after a former Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in Oyo State, Alhaji Lateef Salako a.k.a. Eleweomo, and two others loyal to some warring chieftains of the party were killed during the local government congress of the party. On the same day, an ex-Senate Leader, Teslim Folarin, escaped death when some gun-wielding hoodlums ambushed him during the conduct of the election. Two of his supporters were however shot dead by thugs while about 20 vehicles were reported burnt.
It was the same scenario in Lagos last year during the councillorship primaries of the ruling APC when suspected thugs shot dead a chieftain of NURTW, Rasaq Bello, vaka Hamburger, in the Shogunle area of Oshodi. A fight was said to have broken out at the venue of the poll between two rival groups- Saka/Oposun led by the deceased and Golden Boys led by a youth called Samson. The two groups were allegedly recruited by the party’s aspirants to intimidate each other’s supporters when a brawl ensued and Hamburger was gruesomely killed.
In Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area, Lagos State, suspected thugs also set ablaze the council secretariat in Festac Town in protest against the election while parts of Mushin Local Government Area witnessed chaos as thugs disrupted the exercise.
How they are recruited
Misguided unemployed youths, motor park touts, street urchins, members of Leader, Teslim Folarin, escaped death when some gun-wielding hoodlums ambushed him during the conduct of the election. Two of his supporters were however shot dead by thugs while about 20 vehicles were reported burnt.
It was the same scenario in Lagos last year during the councillorship primaries of the ruling APC when suspected thugs shot dead a chieftain of NURTW, Rasaq Bello, vaka Hamburger, in the Shogunle area of Oshodi. A fight was said to have broken out at the venue of the poll between two rival groups- Saka/Oposun led by the deceased and Golden Boys led by a youth called Samson. The two groups were allegedly recruited by the party’s aspirants to intimidate each other’s supporters when a brawl ensued and Hamburger was gruesomely killed.
In Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area, Lagos State, suspected thugs also set ablaze the council secretariat in Festac Town in protest against the election while parts of Mushin Local Government Area witnessed chaos as thugs disrupted the exercise.
How they are recruited
Misguided unemployed youths, motor park touts, street urchins, members of transport unions, land grabbers, ex-militants and cult members in tertiary institutions are usually recruited by politicians into their standing ‘army’. They are contracted as mercenaries or personal security aides and are provided with arms or weapons to brutally attack or intimidate perceived opponents.
Indeed, street urchins and members of transport unions often openly display their loyalty to certain politicians and the political party they belong to. At the snap of their principals’ fingers, political thugs unleash terror on rival politicians, some of which result in fatality.
At times, in order to shield them from public suspicion, leading political thugs, including ‘repentant’ militants, are offered appointments as aides to governors, commissioners, ministers or high ranking politicians.
For instance, a dreaded militant leader in Benue State, Terwase Akwaza, popular known as Gana, became a security aide to the state’s governor, Samuel Ortom, after he embraced an amnesty programme of the state governor for militant youths. The Tiv militant was saddled with the responsibility of convincing other armed youths to embrace the amnesty programme and return their weapons. The governor also ensured that he was provided with adequate security, a car and other financial perks so that he would not be tempted to go back to crime.
It however turned out that Gana was later fingered for his alleged complicity in the killing of the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to Governor Ortom on Special Security, Igbana Denen, a retired police sergeant, and has since bolted without a trace.
Another trick by politicians is to register their mercenaries into an amorphous organisation through which they operate and fight their battles at all times. A typical example is the recent revelation by Ayoade Akinnibosun, one of the suspects arrested in connection with the robbery of some banks in Offa, Kwara State recently, who claimed to be the leader of a group of thugs allegedly working for the Senate President under the name, Liberation Youth Movement Kwara South.
Akinnibosun had said: ”I am the chairman of Liberation Youth Movement Kwara South. My involvement with the Senate President, we are his boys! We work for him at Kwara South. We are the ones that hold Kwara South for him. We have been working for him since we were in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); it has been long, when he was governor of Kwara State.
“We are the ones that do political arrangement for him. For example, where we can’t win, we make ‘dabaru’ arrangement there…we scatter elections if we don’t win.” Saraki has however denied links with the suspects, alleging that they were being linked with him because of his tiff with the Inspector-General of Police Ibrahim Idris.
