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.
No comments:
Post a Comment