In line with its mandate to dislodge miscreants and squatters from abandoned buildings, the Special Committee on the Clean up of Ikoyi and Victoria Island has arrested 11 suspected miscreants and women of easy virtues in Ikoyi.
The arrests were made on Sunday.
The accused, made up of eight women and three men, were arrested in an abandoned building on Club Road, Ikoyi, said to be owned by a deceased retired military top brass.
The operation, which also involved policemen from the ikoyi Police Station, was coordinated by the Chairman of the Task Force on Environmental and Special Offences, Superintendent Yinka Egbeyemi, and was carried out following series of complaints by residents of Club Road on the untoward activities going on in the building, especially at dusk.
Speaking with newsman while parading the suspects at his Alausa office, Egbeyemi said when questioned, all the suspects could not offer explanations on their means of livelihood.
He added that all the suspects would be charged to court soon based on circumstantial evidence, just as he warned that the committee is resolute about its determination to rid Ikoyi and VI of abandoned buildings and miscreants.
He emphasised that the next stop of the Clean Up committee is Lekki, where all such infractions have been identified and would be cleared to restore the original masterplan of the areas.
Egbeyemi added that before this latest operation, the Task Force had earlier gone to the same abandoned building, which has become a convergence point for all sorts of characters, including uniformed men who allegedly purchase alcohol and drugs, while at night it served as a joint and brothel for women of easy virtues, to warn the operators to relocate.
He said after the first visit, a surveillance was placed on the building, which is close to the Ikoyi Police Station, and indicated that different questionable characters were still patronising the place and terrorising the residents, a development which spurred the clean-up team to act.
The paraded suspects included Ajoke Precious, 22, from Kogi; Akaana Agateh, 26, from Benue; Agbo Elizabeth, 18, also from Benue; Augustin Mary, Benue; Ajanjo Blessing, 24; Mary Douglas from Bayelsa, 22; and Mati Dodi, 28.
All of them claimed they engage in menial jobs and were assisted by one military personnel named Salau to be staying in the building since they had accommodation issues.
They all denied paying any rent to the said Salau who squats them, adding that they were only allowed to stay on compassionate ground pending when they would be able to arrange themselves.
Douglas said she arrived in Lagos in January to stay with her uncle who has since moved out of Lagos.
She added that the necessity to make ends meet forced her to stay back and seek alternative accommodation means, while she sells fairly used clothes at Obalende P&T to eke out a living.
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