For what they described as unwarranted loss of lives and property resulting from frequent clashes between rival groups in Ebute-Metta and Yaba areas of Lagos State, residents of Otumara/Ilaje, Ifesowapo, Otto Central, Atitebi, Ilogbo Otto Extension and Iyagan Community Development Associations in Ebute Meta, Lagos, have appealed to the Lagos State Government and the state Commissioner of Police to come to their rescue.
The residents said their lives and property were no longer safe as a result of incessant clashes by street urchins, popularly known as area boys.
The Chairman of Iyagan Peace and Progress Community Development Association, Mr. Odafe O. Ogun, said: “We are not Somalia, neither are we in war in the country.
“It is alarming that we have been under siege and anytime any of them is arrested by the police, he gets released before you know it.
“We want the state government to set up an investigation panel and summon all traditional and political leaders in the area to a meeting where they should be made to sign an undertaken, as a way to end the clashes.”
The Chairman, Ifesowapo Community Development Association, Comrade Agbodemu Ishola, who is also the Chairman of slum dwellers, stated that the communities, in an attempt to curtail the activities of the street urchins, engaged a vigilance group, a measure he said has not achieved the desired result.
Ishola said: “As part of our effort to curtail the violence, the six CDAs came together to employ vigilantes and this has given us a little respite but the area boys have resorted to attacking the men and if anyone of them is arrested, before we know it, some moneybags would get them released.
“We need the assistance of the state government and the police commissioner to get out of this situation.”
Agbodemu attributed the frequent clashes among the area boys to the quest for supremacy, adding that the clashes also have political undertone, as politicians in the area engage the area boys to settle scores with their opponents.
He corroborated Ogun’s words by appealing to the state government to summon all politicians and traditional chiefs and make them sign an undertaken as a way of restoring peace in the area.
It was gathered that from last October to date, more than 10 persons have been killed while property worth millions of naira have been destroyed.
Agbodemu also stated that the crisis will continue as the laws in Lagos State continue to affect the poor and jobless youths.
He said: “The law in Lagos State is anti-poor.
“There is law banning street trading.
“Now the government is banning okada and NURTW members from collecting tolls.
“Motor parks are being dismantled.
“These are areas people were getting their daily meal from so now it has been taken away. “An hungry man is an angry man.
“So that is why the violence cannot stop.”