- Lagos State govt’s warning to cultists timely; it must be followed by stern action
Time is now to say ‘enough is enough’ to murderous gangs, cultists and armed miscreants who have been terrorising several neighbourhoods of Lagos for nearly a decade now. While we may say better late than never, it could also be said that this ruinous social vice has been left to linger almost too long, thereby allowing it to fester and spread to more areas of the state.
Apparently moved by the two dastardly acts of the hoodlums in the last few days, it is all the same salutary that the state government yesterday released a stern warning to deal severely with gangsters and cultists anywhere they may be in the state.
According to the statement by the commissioner for information and strategy, Mr. Steve Ayorinde, the government was worried by the rising cases of violent clashes in some areas of the state as a result of cultism.
“Government will not fold its arms and watch innocent citizens suffer unduly in the hands of unscrupulous elements. Henceforth, cult members and their sponsors will be treated as murderers and arsonists,” the statement reads. Notably, it also advised parents and guardians to keep watchful eyes on their children and the people they move with.
This stern and direct warning from the state government is certainly not unconnected to the mayhem unleashed by gangs in two different areas of Lagos in the last few days.
In the early evening of last Friday, on Iya Agan Street, Old Apapa Road, Ebute-Metta, Lagos Mainland, a gang had invaded, and according to eyewitnesses account, slaughtered one Dada, alias Ratio, said to be a member of a rival gang. It was reported that when they could not put him out with gunshots, they had deployed cutlasses to cut him down.
The operation was reportedly so brazen that the gang had coolly told residents not to panic or flee as they knew their target. And true to their word, soon as they had butchered the victim, they walked away unmolested.
The following day, Saturday, a clash by rival gangs at Osinfolahan Street, Bariga, Lagos, had claimed three lives, including a 65-year old reportedly bedridden woman who was burnt to death as her house was torched.
These are indeed the few cases that made it to the press. There is hardly any day that passes without neighbourhood gangs carrying out bloody reprisal attacks on each other or inflicting pain and trauma on residents in one part of Lagos or the other. The hot spots are Mushin-Olosa, Idi-oro, Fadeyi, Somolu-Bariga and Ebute-Metta.
A social vice that started mainly in the Mushin- Idioro axes has over the years, spread to other neighbourhoods of Lagos. And it has continued to fester. Places like Mafoluku-Oshodi, Mile Two, Mile – 12, Ajah and even Ikorodu town are also gradually being infested by gangs who are buoyed by the ‘successes’ of gangs in other neighbourhoods.
Over the past decade or so, residents in the hot zones have been cut down in their dozens, most of them caught in the crossfire of rival gangs killing and maiming each other daily. Properties like vehicles are often vandalised and houses torched.
More galling is that most members of gangs are well known in the neighbourhood. On occasion when they are arrested by the police, they are soon released to unleash even more terror on residents. They have also transformed over the years from using knives and machetes to sophisticated arms and ammunition. As they grow in affluence and influence, they have infiltrated the police and other security agencies.
The point therefore is that the Lagos State government must deploy drastic and urgent measures if it wishes to reclaim its neighbourhoods from these gangs. There may be need for a special task force that can disband the dangerous cells and take out the kingpins. They are not difficult to find as they are well known in the neighbourhood. Hard drugs dealers in these areas must also be dislodged and made to face the law while social orientation campaigns need be initiated as well.
An emerging mega metropolis like Lagos cannot afford to let miscreants seize her space. We must save Lagos from becoming a gangster paradise. And the way to do this is by getting those involved arrested and prosecuted for murder if people are killed in what we simplistically dismiss as ‘cult wars’.
