Lagos residents protest cult, robbery attacks

May 27, 2014

The protesters.

Residents of the Lagos Mainland Local Government Area, who have been victims of frequent attacks by robbers and cultists, have staged a protest to the Chairman of the council.

The protesters took off from Jones Street around 11am and stormed the council secretariat with placards bearing inscriptions such as, “Chairman Lado – Ramon and Shittu – two innocent blood on Jones Street are seeking justice; Area Boys have continued to kill, steal and rape our women; and Fifteen years of civilian rule, they turn our community into a war zone.”

Some of the protesters said that they had not been able to sleep with both eyes closed for a while.

One of them, who identified himself simply as as Shola, explained that there was an ongoing gang war in the community. He said the battle had assumed a worrisome dimension with frequent attacks on innocent residents.

“There has been a gang war going on for some time now involving area boys and cult groups in the community. The reason for this protest is that it has reached the stage of attacking, robbing and killing of innocent citizens, both day and night, especially in the last one week. We cannot continue to die in silence” he said.

The residents said the police had been patrolling the area in the hope of restoring peace, adding that the hoodlums, however, had a way of striking as soon as security operatives were out of sight.

Sola said, “The police do patrol this place, but these boys monitor the operations of the policemen and they usually attack as soon as the policemen are out of sight.”

Another protester, Mrs. Olabode, claimed that she was almost raped the last time the gang struck.

According to her, after taking her phones and her money, one of the hoodlums wanted to rape her.

“These criminals have been disturbing us in this area and it is getting too much. Last week, one of them wanted to rape me. What saved me that day was that I was in my menstrual period,” she said.

The Chairman of the local government area, Oladele Adekanye, commended the protesters for being civil and peaceful in their conduct.

He called for a collaborative effort from residents in tackling the security situation in the affected area, which he said was a recent development.

He promised to work with the relevant authorities to have a police post in the area as a way of improving security and urged the residents to also be security conscious and provide security operatives with useful information.