Men and officers of the Special Anti- Robbery Squad drawn from the Lagos Police Command recently invaded Alasalatu Street, Mushin, Lagos, in search of suspected gang leaders terrorising the residents of the area.
Prior to the invasion, there had been reports that the trio of Toheeb, a.k.a Ogboo; Nurudeen and one self-styled Alhaja, had been recruiting gun-wielding gang members, who they intermittently used to attack perceived enemies around the Mushin axis.
While details of their alleged criminal activities remain sketchy, The Point gathered from a top police source that the trio had turned the area into a mini-jungle, where shooting and other criminal activities had become common place.
According to a source, Nurudeen and Toheeb became comrades-incrime after one Gani was killed in a shoot-out with the police some years back. “Some of the weapons left behind by the slain Gani soon became handy to Nurudeen, who became second in command to Toheeb.
Ironically, too, the residents know them as a good sailor knows the depth of the sea, but for fear of being attacked, nobody dared to report their nefarious activities to the police,” said the source.
Our source hinted further that Alhaja Ajarat, said to have dropped out of a polytechnic, soon became their armourer, having apparently been cajoled into believing that crime was lucrative.
“They operate like a cult group, but their nocturnal activity is far from that. The group has a godfather in the name of a medical doctor, who regularly goes to the police to settle whenever any of them ran foul of the law.
The woman has obviously become the woman friend to the medical doctor, who the three of them see as their back-bone,” disclosed a source. Investigations revealed that Alasalatu Street, Mushin, has been renamed “Street of fire,” because of the level of gun-fire engaged in by the group.
“Between 10 pm and 11 pm, the street becomes a no-go area. This is the period the queen of crime and her associates would bring out a colour television to the street, where the fair-complexioned lady displays her wares of pure water and soft drinks. While this was going on, new recruits would be initiated, and the adjoining street, Okuntola, would be cordoned-off by the gun wielding leaders.
“Barely two weeks ago, during initiation, one Baba Michael, a transporter, was arrested and beaten to a pulp by the three people and other gang members. His offence was his audacity to cross their path during an initiation ceremony,” a source said. It was in an apparent reaction to the several complaints against the ring leaders that detectives were recently deployed by the police authorities to carry out a discreet investigation on the shady characters.
“Police have been carrying out both overt and covert investigations on the street gangs. This time around, we hope the police would not fail to bring to book the bad guys in our community,” said Mallam Jubrin Akewukewe, a community leader. Spokesperson of the Lagos State Police Command, Superintendent Dolapo Badmos, said there would be no hiding place for criminals in the state.
“Alasalatu is a black spot. Our men and officers have been patrolling the environment. At the appropriate time and day, we’ll clamp down on the hoodlums,” she said. According to her, the shady characters in the area and their alleged backers were continuously being monitored.
“The police are on the ground to do their job. We are on ground to clean the state of hoodlums and send them to the appropriate quarters,” she said.
