AS unemployment bites harder, Lagos State is increasingly facing gang-related killings and youth crime. In a now too familiar pattern, gunmen struck at Amodu Street in Mushin, killing an eight-month pregnant woman, Musili Bello, and her 12-year-old daughter, Suliat Olowu, in late January. While the mother was shot in the stomach and in the face, the hoodlums put bullets through Suliat’s head in a 20-minute operation.
On February 3, a street gang stabbed a 300-level undergraduate, Opeyemi Odusanya, 17, to death in her house for rejecting their sexual advances. And, as usual, the state Police Commissioner, Umaru Manko, promised to give the criminals a hell of a time if they don’t “have a rethink.” But, to make the streets safe, the police chief should clamp down on criminals, not preach to them.
Attempts by the government over the years to curb this malady have been ineffective, marred principally by timidity and lack of willpower to clamp down on the growing army of miscreants. This attitude has emboldened the villains to continue perpetrating violence at a frightening frequency. Having organised themselves into mafia-like gangs, many residents, particularly in Mushin, Fadeyi, Mafoluku, Somolu, Ilasamaja and Bariga, are now bearing the brunt of the lawlessness being unleashed by these criminals. Often, innocent people are caught in the crossfire when the gangs are fighting to protect their turf. Detailing the atrocities of the gangs would fill a tome, and this year alone has witnessed many shocking attacks.
In the battle for supremacy, rival gangs invaded Mafoluku in January, where they vandalised buildings and about 50 cars. According to residents, all alerts sent to the police during the operation went unanswered. Even when the residents give tips to the police about the perpetrators, they only arrest the suspects and release them later, after being influenced either by politicians or being compromised themselves. The criminals, therefore, return to the streets to cause more damage, hunting down and killing the informants.
In Ebute-Meta, mainland Lagos, gangsters stabbed a transport union leader, Seyi Olaleye, to death early this year, while two women, one of them carrying her baby, were shot dead by street gangs in Mushin, on February 10. The criminals are so bold that they now rob in broad daylight in Somolu, moving from house to house, unchecked.
Tackling gang violence should be a key priority for the Lagos Police Command. Not only are the activities of the miscreants a blot on the bold security initiatives of the Fashola administration, the reign of terror by street gangs is giving Lagos a bad name in the international community. A state that aspires to a mega-city status for its major metropolis should not watch idly. Fashola should deploy the zeal used in clearing Lagos of filth to deal with the street gangs. Importantly, Lagos has to enforce its own Road Traffic Law 2012 that prohibits touts (agberos) from collecting (illegal) dues at bus-stops and termini.
As in all growing cities, the Lagos State Government must think ahead of the criminal gangs. In dealing with this monster, the governor and the police have to be on the same page. An anti-gang crime unit saddled with the task of preventing, investigating and rapidly responding to gang violence in Lagos should be considered. An intelligence-driven scheme, where plain-clothes officers will infiltrate the gangs, as was done in Britain to bring down such crime rate to 20 per cent in 2013, should be employed. It is reported that there are an estimated 250 active criminal gangs in London, comprising about 4,800 people mostly aged between 18 and 24. Of these gangs, police statistics revealed, 62 are considered “high harm” and commit two-thirds of all gang-related crime. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation also used the infiltration method to weaken the extremist group, Ku Klux Klan, beginning from 1961.
Our youths need to be properly oriented. They should know that getting involved in gangs can ruin a young person’s life. With a criminal record, it can be harder to get a job or further education. Being involved in violence can lead to getting arrested, sent to prison, seriously injured or even killed.
Street gang violence thrives on the complicity of the police who collect “protection fees” from the criminal groups. Ineffective Divisional Police Officers whose zones continue to record clashes should be immediately redeployed and focused officers brought in as replacements. When the police make arrests, the governor must ensure that offenders are prosecuted. The era of politicians prevailing on the police to let off suspects without being tried must stop. The state government and the police should institute a tag system for serial offenders with a view to monitoring their movements, as has been done successfully in Britain.
The police should effectively use the recently-installed CCTV cameras across the state to identify gangsters, and bring them to book.
PUNCH
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