Havens of hoodlums
A mild drama played out in Festac Town area of Lagos State last week when a suspected Boko Haram member was smoked out of an abandoned 40-foot container in the premises of a church where he locked himself up in a bid to unleash terror on innocent worshippers. The abandoned container was obviously the last place one would expect that a terrorist would hide in order to carry out his godless act.
The suspect identified as Adam and five others were reportedly arrested the same day at different locations by a team of Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), led by the Seriki Hausawa in Ijora part of Lagos, Alhaji Mustapha Mohammed.
Narrating how Adam was picked up from the container, Mohammed said: “We got an intelligence report that Adam was hiding inside an abandoned 40-foot container on a church premises. It was the security man attached to the church that hid him inside the container. When we arrived at the church premises, we headed straight to where the container was kept. The security man attached to the church was not around then. The container was locked from the outside with a padlock. The pastor of the church was embarrassed to see us. But when we explained our mission to him, he and others stood aside to see. By the time we broke the padlock, Adam was hiding in the far corner of the container. As soon as the pastor sighted the suspect, he started singing praises.”
Adam’s choice of hideout, findings showed, is one among the numerous others that have been created by criminal elements to carry out their ungodly activities. Latest developments showed that they have also included worship centres in their hideouts. That much was revealed when the police in Ogun State recently invaded the auditorium of a popular church in Lagos and arrested 236 suspects inside the auditorium.
The state’s Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Muyiwa Adejobi, said the exercise followed series of reports and intelligence gathering on how people with questionable character use the auditorium as refuge after committing crime. Adejobi said among the 236 arrested, 165 were males while 71 were females.
He said: “Our men carried out the raid in the early hours of today after a series of report that criminals have taken the auditorium as hideout. As early as 2 am, they arrested 236 persons, 165 are males while 71 are females.”
The PPRO said the suspects were being screened, adding that those who had genuine reasons to be at the church auditorium would be released, while those who could not identify themselves would be prosecuted.
A pastor who simply identified himself as Sampson told The Nation that it is not out of place for security operatives to keep eagle eyes on religious centres, adding: “It is very important for security operatives to visit religious houses where a large number of people gather from time to time to flush out criminal elements who are fast using religious houses as hideouts.
“Mind my word, I said visit, not raid. If they begin to raid, innocent people will begin to run away. But the truth is that criminals come to hide in religious houses because they have the belief that they are safe in them.
“If you go to some mountains outside Lagos State, you will find certain people in those places from time to time. This gave birth to the joke that if you commit a crime in the city and run to those mountains to seek refuge among the children of God, nobody will ever trace you to the place.
“There is nothing that men of God can do about this because they are not trained to identify and fish out criminals. But they can work with the police to make sure that criminals don’t turn religious houses into their haven.”
While worship centres appear to be the new haven for crime-minded people, checks showed that slums have for decades remained a veritable breeding grounds for hoodlums. Checks across various slums in Lagos State showed that they are breeding grounds for hoodlums.
In their ‘hood’, as they usually describe their dens, the hoodlums, who often look dingy, brazenly engage in consumption of all manner of hard drugs and gambling. They watch suspiciously and are quick to beat a retreat each time they see strange faces suspected to be security operatives.
Residents of some of the slums told our correspondent that a number of the hoodlums work in conjunction with criminals in other places to carry out illicit acts.
“Some of these guys work as spies for other criminals operating in different areas,” said a slum resident named Boyo. “They know about most robbery attacks within and outside the neighbourhood. There is always a kind of synergy between the hoodlums in the area that is attacked and the ones that are coming to attack.
“If you don’t know, different gangs control the various waterways and they work together. At times, some of the hoodlums in the attacked environment survey the land and give information about financial institutions and privileged individuals in the community to their colleagues in other areas.
“It is a big network that transcends Lagos State. The huge challenge is that many innocent children are quick to team up with these guys because they get cheap money and indulge in extravagant lifestyles. Most of the children in such neighbourhoods have little or no opportunity of learning good character because all they are exposed to is substance abuse, gambling and naked immorality.
“Unfortunately, some people who were doing legitimate businesses have been forced to join them because of economic hardship. We are really in a big mess.”
Benson, a resident of the Takwa Bay slum on Lagos Island, has this to say about the activities of hoodlums in the area: “They have opened brothels, drinking and smoking joints where the souls of innocent ones are sold to the devil. We are not comfortable with all that but nobody can challenge them. If you challenge them, they would come at night to pick you up and throw you into the lagoon to feed the fish.
“I guess that the closure of the hot joints at Bar Beach compounded the woes of this area and its environs, as the criminal elements driven out of the place have found their ways into various communities, including ours.”
Also serving as hideouts for criminals are motor parks. In various motor parks around the city, criminals who masquerade as transporters loiter around, waiting for opportunities to attack and dispossess unsuspecting commuters of their valuables.
The practice is prevalent in Oshodi where underage children who pretend to be working as bus conductors are daily recruited, groomed and used to snatch handbags, phones and other valuables from passers-by. From one part of the rail line that runs through the area to the other, the miscreants often gather in groups, gambling, smoking and drinking heavily.
A commercial driver who identified himself simply as Bashy said: “A number of these boys ran away from their parents as young as 10-year-olds because they wanted unlimited freedom. All they do is to help you call passengers and get N100 for their service. That is what they do in the day time. But when night falls, they stay at strategic corners to attack people. If you are receiving a call in a vehicle and you are not careful enough, they will snatch your phone from you. They also rape people when they have the opportunity to do so. In spite of the state government’s efforts at flushing them out of the area, their number has continued to increase. If care is not taken, they will return Oshodi to the old days where criminals held sway.”
The Nation’s investigation also revealed that brothels, hotels and clubs serve as hideouts for different classes of criminals. The hotels, it was gathered, serve as hideouts for criminals of higher class and operations, while brothels serve as ‘homes’ for those of lower class.
Findings showed that some of the hoodlums work with commercial sex workers who often help them to keep their arms and ammunition. In fact, a top member of hotel owners association at a recent security meeting attended by the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, complained about how policemen raided her hotel in search of suspected criminals without alerting the management.
A socialite, who didn’t want his name in print, said: “Hotels are not meant for saints; it is a place where people of different characters visit. Aside from people who do legitimate deals, many criminals who do big time deal use big hotels as hideouts. They lodge in hotels and dress decently to deceive even the most intelligent security officer.
“They may not keep their weapons with them to avoid giving themselves out. Some years ago, some big time robbers were apprehended at Ring Road area of Ibadan in a hotel where they lodged. It was the management that exposed them because they suspected their activities and movements.
“But criminals’ use of hotels as hideouts is not a practice as common as the use of brothels for the same purpose. In fact, brothel is a synonym for criminals’ den. Majority of the guys who hang out at brothels don’t do legitimate business. They are robbers, pickpockets or drug peddlers.
“Some armed robbers keep their weapons with the prostitutes in such brothels and in some cases use them as spies to attack their targets. Some of the commercial sex workers combine acting as informants for criminals with their primary business of sleeping with men to make money.
“Clubs are not so much of hideouts because they often don’t operate for 24 hours. It is only those that harbour commercial sex workers that often serve as regular hideouts. What criminals use clubs to do is to stay there boozing till they would go out for operations.”
Markets, which before now only acted as venues for buying and selling, our correspondent’s findings revealed, are another growing hideout for in hoodlums, particularly in Lagos State.
Our correspondent who visited some of the markets reported that most major markets in the state are natural habitats for hoodlums. Like in other hideouts, they have their territories in the markets where they carry out their nefarious activities without being challenged by the traders.
A trader at Ketu Market, who gave his name as Afis, said: “They are so many here in the market. They have several joints where they gather to smoke and do other dirty things. Some of them hang around some local cinemas from where they go out to attack people. Some of them stay in the brothels right here in the market.
“We know them and always avoid meddling in their affairs. If they suspect that you are planning to give them out, you will go in for it. But if you leave them to their ways of life, they will not attack you. The security operatives are not unaware of their presence in this market. They know how to settle themselves.”
The popular Alaba Rago Market along the Lagos/Badagry Expressway wears innocuous look on the outside, but its inside is a mindboggling den where miscreants enjoy free reign. A visitor to the market does not need to be told the kind of people that operate in the area. Dishevelled young men and women walk about with jumbo size wraps of Indian hemp and other hard drugs in their hands. Prostitutes, including teenage ones and others in the twilight of their anti-social profession, line the street waiting for customers.
A youthful resident of the area said: “This is a no-man’s land. It is a place for hard guys. If you don’t belong, you have no business here. We run things here, things don’t run us. The traders have their zone and we have our zone, but we all operate in this same market. Whichever way you see it, na business all of us dey do.”
Refuse dumps would hardly come to mind as possible hideouts for criminals, but it is one of the numerous places hoodlums now operate from to unleash terror on residents of Owodunni area, a community on LASU\Igando Expressway, Lagos. The area houses one of the biggest dumpsites in the state. Some residents of the area told our correspondent that they have been attacked many times by hoodlums who use the refuse dump as their hideout.
“We are always attacked by armed robbers who hide in the dumpsite. They come from there to attack us. After robbing us, they immediately retreat into the dumpsite and we dare not venture into the place with them because we don’t know the calamity that could befall anyone who tries to,” said Babajide, a resident.
The list of hideouts for criminals will be incomplete without a mention of uncompleted or abandoned buildings. They remain one of the oldest dens of criminals. The Executive Secretary of Victoria Island and Ikoyi Security and Environment Trust (VIISET) and Victoria Island and Ikoyi Residents Association (VIIRA), Alhaji Abdulateef Muse, spoke about the challenges posed by uncompleted buildings and canals to residents of the areas.
He said: “People who stay in uncompleted buildings are not identifiable and their motives are always not good. They often launch attacks on people openly and covertly. We have compiled a list of all the uncompleted houses in the areas and forwarded them to the state government, the local government and the police for necessary action. It is left for the police to raid such places.
“The government on its part can do well to identify the owners of such properties or, in the extreme, revoke their licences. Besides abandoned buildings, canals also constitute security threats. We have cases of people being attacked, especially when they want to pass the front of the canals. The canals can serve as places for stockpiling weapons because big trees and banana trees have occupied the whole place, making it possible for criminals to hide there.”
He added: “Recently at Ojuolobun area, a hoodlum entered a compound and ransacked the whole place. The CCTV was able to record him. The footage has been given to the police with the hope that the culprit will be indentified and fished out. Hoodlums congregate in dirty environments a lot. That is why it is important to extend the cleaning of the highways to the inner streets too. When the inner streets are dirty, they tend to attract hoodlums.
“We are not leaving any stone unturned in addressing security issues in the area. We have charged the residents to report suspicious movements, strangers, among others. Our instruction is that they should observe and report whatever security threat they see.”
Proffering solution to the challenge of hideouts, the Executive Secretary of Nigeria Institute of Industrial Security, Wilson Esangbedo, said: By dark place, we mean places where security controls are very loose. Here in Lagos, places like Oshodi and Agege used to be notorious dark spots until the former governor of the state, Babatunde Fashola, dislodged hoodlums from those areas. Bridges also used to be dark spots until Governor Akinwumi Ambode started the light up Lagos project.
“What is required to flush out hoodlums from dark spots is community policing. Community-based associations should rise up to the occasion and devise means of protecting their members. They should strive to identify dark spots and inform the police about this so that they can flush them out. The police also need to create awareness about this so that the people would work with them.”
He added: “There is nothing the government can do about hoodlums using religious houses as hideouts because they are places that are open to everybody. It is only when there is information about such that the police can be tipped off to apprehend such criminals.
“The police can also do nothing about flushing out criminals from motor parks except they work with the leaderships of the transport unions. The leaders of transport unions know their genuine members and those who are not. Working with the groups will help to rid the parks of criminals.
Former Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Abubarkar Tsav, however, disagreed that community policing is the solution to the use of various places as hideouts. He noted that the major solution is for the government to provide employment opportunities for the teeming jobless people.
He said: “Hotels and isolated places are some of the areas that serve as hideouts for criminals. But the solution is not in community policing. There is abject poverty in the country. Many people are suffering and going through hardship. This explains why dark spots and criminal activities are on the rise.
“The police force has been depleted. But the solution in the long run is for the government to provide employment opportunities for the large number of jobless citizens. If this is not done, even if you put policemen in every house, the problem will continue.”