BREAKING NEWS, Politics
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Lagos State Task Force on Environment arrests 93 commercial motorcyclists and suspected hoodlums in the metropolis for illegal occupation and smoking of hemps
THE Lagos State Task Force on Environment and other Special Offence Unit has arrested 93 commercial motorcyclists, popularly called okada riders, and other suspected hoodlums in the state. The suspects, who were nabbed in the Oshodi, Agege, Ojuelegba and Iju-Ishaga areas, were accused of being illegal occupants of abandoned buildings and hemp smokers.
A large number of them were okada riders and were also tagged as an environmental nuisance by the government. Among those arrested were three female teenagers and 90 males.
Akeem Adedeji, chairman of the task force, said the move was to check the increase in crime rate and the flagrant disregard for the law. Adedeji, who revealed that most of the suspects were between ages 12 and 15, said the suspects would be screened, while the teenagers would be taken to juvenile homes in the state.
“We won’t back down. This arrest will serve as a clear warning to those bent on fomenting trouble and other law breakers that government will not condone indiscipline and environmental nuisance. There is no hiding place for law breakers in Lagos. We are also clamping down on street traders on major highways. Many of them have become armed robbers. We are getting complaints from the residents and motorists. The Lagos State Government frowns on street trading, begging and touting,” he said.
Adedeji said the Governor Akinwunmi Ambode-led administration was committed to the protection of lives and property to attract more investors and make life easy for the residents.
None of the okada riders was willing to speak. However, one of the arrested girls, Zainab Kamal, 19, said she paid N50 with others, numbering about 50, to sleep where she was arrested in Oko Mola in Oshodi. She said, “I am not a criminal or a drunk, I only drink jedi (alcoholic concoction for pile).”
Another suspect, Iyabo Okunola, 16, said the tattoo on her was for fashion, and not a mark of any cult group.
Culled from The Punch newspaper
— Aug 3, 2015 @ 13:30 GMT
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