It used to serve as a recreational centre for youths engaged in all sorts of sport. Investigations revealed that the play field was created during the administration of the former civilian governor of Lagos State, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, who saw the need to engage youths in extracurricular activities.
‘Maracana Stadium’ in Ajegunle, Apapa, Lagos, is reputed for being the ground where some international football stars cut their teeth and even honed their skills before seeking the proverbial golden fleece abroad.
Perhaps, ‘Maracana’ has long outlived its purpose as the field has today become a haven for big time thieves and armed robbers.
Checks revealed that operatives of both the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad and their counterparts in the Lagos Police Command now usually lead suspects to ‘Maracana’ to either exhume weapons buried around the field or to simply arrest their collaborators.
When arrested by the police, a notorious armed robber in the Agege area of the state, Muyiwa Eleba, confessed that he had his ‘trainings’ at ‘Maracana’ before moving down to Agege to establish a ‘base’ from where he carried out his robbery operations. Similarly, Mukaila Oluwo, a ‘specialist’ in automobile theft, told the police that he acquired his skills for stealing vehicles from ‘Maracana’.
Oluwo, who was living at the Tinubu area of Lagos Island, had killed a police officer living in the same compound with him and dumped his corpse in the lagoon. He said that he believed that the policeman was an ‘enemy’, who could give him away.Investigations later led to Oluwo’s arrest and he later confessed to the crime.
So many other crime suspects have been found to trace their roots back to the notorious ‘Maracana Stadium.’
