The society appears to be in for a new wave of criminal activities with the emergence and spread of lethal teenage gangsters. The gangs, who often comprise young boys and girls numbering between 20 and 50 members, openly engage in reckless use of hard drugs, cultism, and robbery both during the day time and at night. Surprisingly, most of them are said to be living with their parents in the neighbourhood they operate in. Fears are rife in the communities that the teenagers could grow into deadlier gangs that would make like completely unbearable for the residents unless their excesses are curbed. INNOCENT DURU reports.
For a very long time, places like Oshodi, Bar Beach and other nocturnal areas in Lagos State served as melting pots for many young boys and girls who ran away from their various families for myriads of trivial reasons. There at the various odd spots, the wayward ones enjoy unfettered freedom to mix up with fellow errant elements and grow up to become ruthless criminals who terrorise the society at will.
Following the frequent clampdown by security operatives on such places, findings showed that a good number of these teenage criminal elements have re-strategised and resorted to forming unholy gangs in their neighbourhoods.
The Nation’s investigation showed that the activities of the teenage gangsters are thriving in areas like Agege, Ikotun, Igando , Ikorodu, among others.
A resident of Igando, who gave his name simply as Wande, lamented the activities of the gangsters in the area. According to him, “A good number of these boys live in the neighbourhoods. They are like baby rats and always look very fragile and haggard. Some of them are even children of landlords. Their parents are aware of their criminal activities but can’t do anything about it. Some of the parents are always quick to bail them each time they are arrested to prevent them from being charged to court.
“After consuming high doses of hard drugs, you will see them walking clumsily with their eyes partially shut. If they come to a party, and food is not served them on time, they would scatter the whole place.
“ There is a girl among them in my street who has almost ruined her life using hard drugs. Each time she returns home late in the night after taking hard drugs, she would descend on the poor mother, who is a widow, and beat her blue black. Neighbours dare not intervene for fear that her gang members could come unleash terror on them. People are disturbed about their menace but there is no one to bell the cat. This is why the nuisance has continued to fester.”
Checks showed that some of them often begin as social-cum-football fans to divert the attention of the public from their real motives.
“When they began their activities in Igando and environs, some of the terror groups started by wearing jerseys of different English Premiership clubs. At that point, nobody smelt any rat. We just saw them as football fanatics and that was how they were able to get many unsuspecting children to be part of them. As time went on, they started showing the real colour they are made of.
“Later on, they openly began to indulge in reckless use of hard drugs and snatching of mobile phones and bags from people going to work very early in the morning and those returning late in the night. At times, when they rob people on the expressway, they would run into the streets to share the ‘booty.’ We do see them but there is nothing we could do. If you try to expose them and they get to know, you will pay dearly for it,” another resident of the community, who gave his name as Ebenezer, said.
Read also: Couple, another killed as cultists go berserk in Ikorodu
A shop owner in the area, who identified herself as Bose, said the strength of the teenage gangsters lies in their number, adding: “They move about in large numbers. If you walk into them, you would pay dearly for it because they would take everything you have on you. From time to time, they attack us in our shops. When they come in like that, you will immediately hand over everything, including money and mobile phones to them.
“Some of them would just come and take things from the shops without paying a dime. We are really at their mercy because they go about armed with dangerous weapons. At times, their menace would take the form of inter-gang fights. They use weapons freely and cause people going about their legitimate businesses to scamper to safety.“
Jeremiah , one of the victims of the teenage gangers’ criminal activities, said: “ These undesirable elements are everywhere. I once ran into them around 6:30 pm along Pipeline area along Isheri/Egbeda road. They were so many but I didn’t suspect anything. When I got close to them, they milled around me and some of them started prostrating to greet me familiarly. Innocently, I responded and moved on. Few minutes after, I discovered that they had taken my phones from my pocket. They unlocked the phone and used the information to gain access into my bank account. They used it to buy recharge cards worth thousands of naira. Unfortunately for me, it was Friday and I couldn’t go to the bank to report the incident and have my account blocked.“
Gangs conscript naive young girls, use them as sex toys
Contrary to beliefs that the terror groups are strictly populated by young boys, The Nation findings showed that young girls are also an integral part of the groups. The young girls, who are often apprentices in various skill acquisition centres, are said to be used as sex toys by the dingy male counterparts. Many of the young girls, it was learnt, have become single mothers who have little or no time for their children.
It was also learnt that the girls always quit the skills they are acquiring immediately they are conscripted into the gangs.
A resident of Ikotun, who gave his name as Abass, said the damage that the festering menace of the gangsters is doing to the society is heart-rending.
“There is nothing like morality among these boys. They have a way of luring innocent young girls away from where they are acquiring skills in tailoring, hairdressing and others like that. The girls also join them in all their illicit activities, including attacking innocent members of the society. Despite that, they beat the girls at their conveniences and also use them as sex toys. They impregnate them from time to time and don’t even care about their welfare and that of the children. Imagine what the fate of the children from such criminal elements would be.
“If the girls and even the boys are subjected to HIV test, it is certain that many of them would test positive because they always engage in unprotected sex. They sometimes rape some female victims without any protection.”
A hairdressing apprentice at Ikotun, who gave her name as Lizzy, spoke about how her colleague was conscripted into one of such groups.
“ She was very hardworking. Her membership of the group happened after she was invited to a birthday party by her friend. Shortly after the event, the friend became a regular visitor to our shop. Before we knew it, she stopped coming to work. On one occasion, I called to know why she didn’t come to work, she replied that it was because her slippers was cut.
“ I offered to send one to her but she said I shouldn’t bother. That was the last time she came to the shop. We eventually got to know that she had joined the gang she attended one of the members’ birthday party. There are so many others like her who have been so initiated. The last time I saw her was when the gang was going to fight another group. She was in their midst chanting war songs.”
Refuse dump as joints for drug addiction, hideout for gangs
The Nation’s findings further revealed that a mountainous refuse dump along Igando serves as a joint for selling and indulging in drug addiction. Hard drugs like tramadol, codeine, among others, are secretly sold in different parts refuse dump.
Some of the residents, who spoke with The Nation, said that despite the choking stench that oozes from the dump site, the teenage gangsters take turns to go there to indulge in drug addiction.
“The dumpsite is a home for all manners of despicable activities for the gangsters. They go there to consume hard drugs and also use it as a hideout. At times, when they snatch valuables from people on the road, they would run into the dump site. No sane person would pursue them into such a horrible place.
“We wish that security operatives would find time to comb that dumpsite that is fast becoming a breeding ground for all manners of criminals. When they finish soaking themselves in hard drugs in the dumpsite, you will see their eyes looking red like wild fire,” a resident, who identified himself simply as Pastor, said.
Knocks for police over spread of teenage terror groups
Residents of the various communities where the activities of the teenage terror gangs have been thriving have flayed the Nigerian Police for not rising to the occasion to nip the menace in the bud.
One of the enraged residents in Igando, who didn’t want his name in print, said: “We have policemen moving around in a small bus from time to time but they don’t go close to where these guys hang out. All they do is to pick up innocent residents and be extorting money from them. Their activities even encourage crime because when they pick up people, they will ask them for certain amounts of money.
“ If the person does not have up to that amount, they would take him to a corner and ask him to transfer money from his phone. Members of the community don’t elicit an iota of respect from them because they are aware of the nonsense that they are doing. People boo them once they enter the streets because their mission is always predictable.”
We have arrested over 600 teenage gangsters this year- Police
The Lagos State Police Command has refuted the allegation that it has not been living up to expectation in curbing the activities of the gangsters.
The spokes person, DSP Bala Elkana, admitted the existence of the gangs, but refrained from describing them as terror gangs. His words: “We are dealing with youth gangsterism. It is not a gang that is spreading. It is youths in neighbourhoods organising themselves into gangsters. I don’t want to use the word ‘terror’ because there are procedures to declare any group as a ‘terror’. Only the government can do that when a group has the characteristics.
“It is a word I don’t want to use but the appropriate word for them is gangsters in identified localities. In Igando, for example, they have some gangsters we have identified and in the last four weeks, we have been clamping down on them. We have over 100 of them already in prison. So, we are aware of gangers and it is one of the things we are battling in the communities.”
Elkana confirmed that the parents of the errant teenagers “are very much living around and within them,” adding that the command is taking a holistic approach to addressing the problem. “These teenagers and the parents are living within the communities. So, we have decided to take a holistic approach to tackle it. We are using the community policing method. We have held series of town hall meetings in Igando and some other communities and it is on-going. We are speaking with parents, landlords, traditional rulers and community leaders because these are children living within the communities and their parents are known.
“If the community people decide to fold their hands, it would consume everyone. Some of these children don’t even know what they are doing. They start with cultism. Some of them would say that they were forced into the initiation. Quite a number of them that we arrested said they were forced into it. Some of them said they joined so that they could just ‘belong.’”
Speaking further, the PPRO said it takes more than law enforcement to tame the menace. “Yes, we are arresting and charging them to court but we can’t end up that way because these are children that must be helped. We are bringing all the stakeholders to solve this problem together.”
He went on to dismiss allegations of corruption ad inefficiency against men and officers of the force, saying: “My brother, it is funny. When you allow your son to go beyond your control, you are looking for who to blame. Would you blame the police who come from outside to come and arrest or those who are living with them and refuse to point them out? Or the people who have been hiding them and don’t want the police to arrest them? We are not looking for blame game. We are looking for solution. We are looking for ways to solve it and I am sure that is why your report is also coming out.
“Come and see the record and see how many are arrested. I parade them every day. We are arresting these guys. Come and hear their statements. They would tell you when they were initiated and how we struck their hideouts and arrested them. Police is doing more than enough in this regard, but it is not enough to solve the problem completely because when you arrest a cultist, you prosecute him in court and he is sentenced to a term in prison, he serves his term and returns, nothing has changed. He is still a cultist, he is still a gangster.
“Some of them, once they come out of prison, would return to their old gangs. The solution is beyond going to prison and coming back. The solution lies in the communities working together with the police to solve the problem. That is where community policing comes in. That is why we are using the approach of community policing to solve this problem. It is a more lasting solution than the arrest and prosecution that we have been doing over the years.”
From the beginning of the year till date, Elkana said: “In Lagos State, we have arrested over 600 of those people. Quite a number of them are secondary school boys. If you send such children to prison, that would be the end of their career because their education would be over. He will come back and become a worse nuisance to the society. There are some of them that we don’t charge. We look at their tender age and bring their parents and look at how they can be placed under supervision to see if they can improve. Some of them have really changed after they were rehabili tated. But members of the gangs who we link with crime are charged to court. Not all the number I told you now have gone to court.
“We have launched campaigns in schools with the Police Community Relation Committee PCRC. We have launched awareness campaigns in schools because quite a number of those young ones are in secondary schools. In tertiary institutions, we have what is called Police Campus Relations Committee. I am the chairman of the committee. All the Student Union Government (SUG) presidents in the 10 campuses in Lagos State are members.
“We meet on a monthly basis to address cultism in tertiary institutions in Lagos. We organise summits and workshops. For those who are not in school, like those who are into apprenticeship, , what we do is to organise town hall meetings like the one we had in Igando last week. We meet them in the market places where they are learning their work. We talk to them and have experts counsel them on the dangers of becoming members of cult groups. We also show them examples of those who have ended up in prison. We have some of them renouncing their membership.”
Advising parents and stakeholders, the command spokesperson said: “We have to accept as a people that we have a problem at hand because it is a societal problem. It is a problem that emanated from the breakdown of the family system. We must accept that it is a problem and now together work for the solution.
“If a father or a mother decides to hide a child who is doing those things, the child would later graduate from just stealing meat in the pot to stealing from the community up to armed robbery level. Every armed robber you see is from a family. They should not continue to hide their children. I am more interested in how we can re-orientate these young ones than sending them to prison because we have the prison congested with lots of them and nothing much has changed . We are working with stakeholders to solve this problem and it is yielding results.”
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