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Anxiety as Lagos waterways become criminals’ hotspots

By Samson Ezea
23 July 2016   |   2:22 am
Before the recent eruption of criminal activities on Lagos waterways, residents of the settlements have always enjoyed bliss.
Waterways

Waterways

Before the recent eruption of criminal activities on Lagos waterways, residents of the settlements have always enjoyed bliss.

Apart from being away from the hustle and bustle of the commercial city, they enjoyed a serene environment, natural breeze, affordable aquatic products, cheap transport, building materials such as sand and others.

But today the reverse is the case as the once fancied waterways have become a source of worry for the residents, security agents and the government. Recently and consistently, robbers, militants and kidnappers have unleashed mayhem on the residents in the settlements unhindered, forcing many of them to abandon their homes in droves to a safe place.

Before the recent kidnap of the traditional ruler of Iba Community in Iba Local Council Development Area of Lagos, His Royal Highness, Goriola Oseni, who is yet to regain his freedom, there had been several cases of kidnapping, raping, killing, and robbing of residents of the areas.

Prominent among them were the kidnap of the three female students of Babington Macaulay Junior Seminary School in Ikorodu and the wife of the Deputy Managing Director of The Sun Publishing Limited, Mr. Steve Nwosu, Toyin through the canal at Amuwo-Odofin, FESTAC area.

The Guardian investigation reveals that apart from this, there are several other victims of robbery, murder and kidnapping on and through the waterways, which their families for fear of them being killed or harmed, often pay ransom to secure their freedom without raising the alarm.

Many residents of the state believe that the kidnap of the Iba traditional ruler, three female students and Toyin Nwosu, made headlines because of the prominence of the victims.

Speaking to The Guardian on the ugly development, a security expert and Chief Executive Officer, Goldwater and Riversand Consult, Umar Babangida Aliyu said: “Law enforcement agencies, particularly the police, need to quickly evolve a proficient waterways command. They may use Lagos as platform or prototype with eventual escalation to other waterway compliant parts of the country; lessons learnt as this evolves become process assets for commands in other prospective waterway-compliant state commands.

“State governments with a propensity of waterway routes may also want to expand effective Transport Management Agency scope to waterways. Bottomline here is, we need to occupy our waterways, and by so doing, own them. Private security service providers in the country and beyond will see wake up calls (and opportunity for growth and wealth creation, for the security sector), albeit disguised as crime trends and challenges.

“Citizens on their part must become more inquisitive and vigilant. Nothing can be farther from the truth than the popular assumption that waterway crime perpetrators come from other places to do damage and escape…nothing more fallacious than assumptions that the ethnic Ijaws are masterminds and architects of this later trend. If indicators from our open source intelligence analysts is anything to go by, there is a tendency that smart idle youths are exploiting the status quo, vis-a-vis our ethnic biases, to perpetrate criminal acts, deliberately designed and executed with a semblance of militancy operations in the creeks, if only to sway attention and direction of investigation.

“While this line of thought can modestly be considered hypothetical, communities must understand that native-ability plays a crucial role in the successful execution of these crime trends; suffice to say, an orange doesn’t fall far from its tree. We encourage riverine community residents to be more vigilant and look inwards, in matters security, or security threat sources, as it were.”

The security expert said that Ikorodu and Badagry residents have been victims of this scourge, with Apapa, Lekki and Epe, being possible future targets.

“Our field analysts report thought that the presence of Naval and Army bases in Apapa may not make it an attractive venue for waterway-aided crimes to occur. This assumption must however not be divorced from plausible indicators that the crime trends, particularly waterway kidnaps weigh heavily against high net worth persons, prominent citizens and thriving corporate entities located along or within waterline communities. Apapa and Lekki fit well into this description realm. The attraction of these features to kidnappers and robbers given demographic profiles of waterline Apapa and Lekki, may outweigh the risk quotient for the perpetrators of waterways criminal acts. Nothing must be left to chance here,” Umar said.

In his own reaction, Lagos State Commissioner for Waterfront Infrastructure Development, Engineer Adebowale Akinsanya, told The Guardian that it is a security issue that should be directed to the security people, but the state is doing a lot in equipping the Police.

“The Commissioner of Police would be the appropriate person to comment but the governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, is doing a lot in securing the state, as he is devoting a lot of money to equipping the Police to do their job properly. The state is more in-charge of the environmental impact of activities on the waterways; activities like dredging,’ he said.

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