Community moves to curb their activities
Residents of Oto-Awori in Lagos State have taken measures to check criminal activities in the area.
Our correspondent learnt that it was recently discovered that the offices of an abandoned local council development area secretariat had been turned to a hideout by some suspected hoodlums and criminals perpetrating all sorts of crime in the community.
The dilapidating structure located at the Afromedia area along Lagos Badagry Expressway, it was learnt, has become a haven into which suspected rapists and other outlaws usually disappear immediately after escaping from a crime scene, especially in the night.
Residents of the area told our correspondent how female kids sent on errands were usually harassed and intimidated by the dirty-looking suspected criminals, who revel in rape as well as snatch-and-grab.
“They would drag their victims to one of the bush-surrounded rooms for the purpose of criminal violation. They have been succeeding in their operations because of the nature of the environment. Go in there and see how torn ladies under-wears and tissue papers litter everywhere. They are all self-evident”, an auto technician, Mr. Taoreed Fakunle, said.
Fakunle added, “When the outcries of victims became too much, concerned residents came out with the idea of putting a signpost that reads, “SAY NO TO CRIME” on the wall to the entrance of the abandoned property. The signpost may not have served any useful purpose to the criminals, but it will indirectly indicate that people are aware of the activities of the suspected hoodlums using the building as their hideout”.
Another resident in the area, Mr. Kashimawo Jegede, said, “The entire area became a no-go zone as soon as it is 10.00pm. You do not need to risk your life passing through the area at past ten in the night. The weed-smoking boys would have by then cordoned-off the place. That’s why we have been calling on the Lagos State Government to either renovate the property, sell it or pull it down now.”
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Assistant Superintendent Olarinde Famos Cole, told our correspondent that there had been a 24-hour patrol of the area.
“We are on the ground 24 hours,” he said.
