Lagos state is currently home to one of the ripple effects of the lockdown decree imposed by the federal government in a bid to contain the spread of COVID-19. Insecurity has increased and become a significant concern for residents. News of robbery attacks, raping, house burgling and other unfortunate incidents caused by miscreants create a new headache the Federal and state government must address.
On Saturday, hoodlums in large numbers said to have emerged from the Agbado area to Abule Egba in Lagos, wreaked havoc by breaking into shops and houses to loot various items and rob residents of money and valuables.
Residents of the affected neighbourhoods in Ogun State like Ijoko, Sango Ota, Ayepe, Ilepa, Ibogun, Itori and Agbado now live in fear, while those in Ajao Estate, Abule Egba, Iju, Agege, Alimosho, Alagbado, reckon that they no longer sleep well at night because of the threat posed by the hoodlums. On Easter Monday, it extended to the Lekki axis with hoodlums trying to scale the wall into Nicon Town off the Lekki-Epe Expressway.
The situation became so bad that residents of the affected communities formed vigilante groups to protect themselves against the miscreants.
It is easy to locate the breakdown in the effects of the lockdown on citizens who live out of the earnings from their daily hustle. Three weeks into the shutdown in Lagos, most have used up whatever reserves they had. The possibility of an extension worsens the threat.
We implore the federal and Lagos state governments to take necessary steps to prevent an escalation of hoodlums’ activities in the land. They must deploy the stick but also find necessary carrots to remove the basis for such criminality.
The IG of Police on Monday named the DIG in charge of the Southwest as the Coordinator of a team to tackle the banditry in Lagos and Ogun States. DIG Peter Babatunde Ogunyanwo will oversee the deployment of the intelligence and operational assets of the Police Force comprising the Police Mobile Force, Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS), Intelligence Response Team (IRT) and the Special Tactical Squad. The Police said they had arrested 191 suspects already. We commend the response of the IG against the backdrop of waffling by the commissioners of police in the areas earlier.
While the government seeks to protect its citizens from contracting the COVID-19 virus, we also need to be assured protection from hoodlums or the whole lockdown exercise will be in vain.
While we recognise necessary steps taken to ameliorate the effect of the pandemic on Nigeria’s healthcare system and economic performance, however, a threat to security in the country is a threat to economic growth and development, rendering futile any economic stimulus. Heightened insecurity hinders capital inflows, distorts peace and order, and throws more people into misery. The federal government in its list of economic priorities in a time like this will be making a big mistake if security isn’t prioritised.
Youths have begun taking the law into their hands as they sharpen their machetes ready to behead whosoever threatens the peace of their communities. Youths are ready to have blood on their hands than to be robbed by hoodlums. This signifies without any doubt the failed security system Nigeria currently operates. We risk having this as the order of the day despite being an abnormality.
These unrests provide the federal government with an opportunity to tackle Nigeria’s insecurity challenges which largely is caused by the high unemployment rate and difficult living condition in the country.
Nigeria must tread the rough road of hard decisions to ensure the security of lives and limbs as a priority. Insecure citizens would be difficult to rein in or organise to observe any social control measures such as the lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus.
