Ajah: A community in search of tranquility

• Group hosts town hall meeting, urges stakeholders to work towards peace

FOLLOWING the persistent fears that pervade Ajah town and other neighbouring communities in Eti-Osa local council area of Lagos State as a result of a recent mayhem in which two lives were reportedly lost, the council hall, located at Igbo-Efon, Lekki, was, last week, filled to the brim with indigenes and residents, who gathered to seek peace in the troubled communities.

   Before the event, the council had witnessed heightened tension as a team of anti-riot policemen arrested scores of hoodlums and some chiefs over allegations of sponsoring hoodlums who unleashed terror on the community.

   Disturbed by the ugly development particularly by the violence that greeted a political rally in the area, in which dangerous weapons such as clubs, daggers and knives were used, Mrs. Remi Akinmade, founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Community Health Information Education Forum (CHIEF), a non-governmental organization, in collaboration with Eti-Osa local council sponsored the meeting.  

   According to her, she decided to organize the workshop to stem the tide of conflicts in the area and ensure that peace was restored in the once peaceful communities. 

   Participants at the workshop included community leaders, youth leaders, Divisional Police Officers  (DPOs) of Ilasan and Ajah Police Stations, indigenes and residents.

 The youth leader of Ologolo Community, Lekki-Ajah, Asiru Ologolo, expressed happiness at the timing of the event and called for more of such meetings to reduce crisis in the local council.

   Ologolo, who traced the problem in the area to 2000 when many hoodlums allegedly invaded the community at the behest of some chiefs in the area, said with such a charged political environment as we have today, more crises are anticipated if preventive measures are not taken.

   According to him, it will take sustained efforts like this workshop and intervention from the federal and state authorities to stem the tide.

   For the Ilasan Divisional Police Officer, Mr.Rotimi Durojaye (a DSP), troublemakers should leave the area, as the police will no longer tolerate any act of violence in Eti-Osa. The police chief cautioned youths in the area to be law abiding and maintain peaceful coexistence.

   Executive Secretary of Eti-Osa local council, Alaba Idowu, urged residents and indigenes in the area to maintain the peace since no meaningful development can thrive in an atmosphere of rancour and crisis.

   According to him, the council has mapped out several projects with which to support the youths of the council.