With the dust yet to settle on the alleged plan by bandits fleeing the North to attack the South West, with Lagos being put on red alert by security agencies and community leaders, the daily streaming of Northern youths into the country’s most-populated state is putting renewed focus on leaders of the Arewa community in the state, TUNBOSUN OGUNDARE and MOHAMMED SUBAIR report.
AMIDST the fear of possible attack on Lagos by bandits fleeing Northern Nigeria, the Arewa community comprising Hausa and Fulani residents in the state has declared its anti-banditry stance, expressing support for all measures to keep the marauders at bay.
The leadership of the community equally expressed confidence that Lagos is safe and shall continue to be safe for the indigenes and other dwellers.
The community noted that it had a mechanism on the ground to checkmate its members and forestall infiltration by strangers who might constitute a security threat to its members and the people of the state in general.
Although members of the Arewa community are everywhere across Lagos, their largest concentrations are found in Agege, Lagos Island, Idi-Araba, Ojo, Shasa, Alaba and many other localities in the state, which have come into security and communal focus since the news of the possible attack was escalated.
Our eyes, ears are always open –Arewa community scribe
In an interview with Saturday Tribune, the secretary of the Arewa chieftaincy council of the community in Agege and environs, Alhaji Abubarkar Aliyu, said the Arewa community would explore all avenues to continue to foster and enjoy peace in its host communities.
Aliyu said, “We have leadership structure in place at various levels such that any stranger that comes will be easily identified and investigated.
“That is why we don’t encourage any Arewa person to be sleeping in front of a house or shop but where they can be easily located.
“Many of them may be doing menial jobs like hawking items, riding okada, repairing and shining shoe, or doing daily, weekly or monthly-paid jobs and so forth, and even some selling rams and cows, but they all have leaders among themselves.
“So, if there is any stranger in our midst, we will know and such a person will be investigated and profiled to know his or her details.
“It is almost impossible for anyone to come from the North without a trace or connection to somebody, maybe relation or family friend, here in Lagos.
“So, anybody that comes with a stranger can be easily identified and the information will be passed to the appropriate quarters for further investigation.”
Aliyu pointed out that such mechanism that considers safety of all as a priority is operated across various Arewa communities as they try to look after themselves.
He said, “We have cordial interactions among ourselves in various communities and our eyes and ears are always open.
“Lagos is the safest state in Nigeria, and it is better for all of us to continue to enjoy the peace. Boko Haram or any other insurgency groups do not consider tribe before wreaking havoc and we will never experience them in any part of Lagos.
“Security is a collective responsibility, and we must all play our parts very well. So, we don’t joke with security.”
Nothing to fear –Arewa traders’ chairman
In his contribution, the chairman of Mile 12 International Market, Alhaji Usman Shehu, dismissed any fear of terrorist group invading Lagos State. He also disavowed the narratives about Northern youths with ties to terrorists infiltrating the state through the market while posing as traders. According to him, proponents of such narratives are alarmists who are seeking attention.
He noted that Lagos in general and Mile 12 Market in particular are too secure for Boko Haram or bandits’ invasion.
He said, “You don’t need to believe what anybody says about Boko Haram coming to Lagos. They are not just starting with their false narratives; they have been saying it for a very long time. Has any terrorist attack happened in Lagos? This is to tell you that they are only seeking relevance.
“Northern youths that come to Lagos and Mile 12 Market are here basically to engage in legitimate trade. They don’t belong to Boko Haram or any criminal group.
“If there is anything like that, I will suggest they leave the matter to security personnel. It is not for them to be raising unnecessary alarm. Lagos is safe and traders engaging in legitimate trade are protected by the law and security operatives. I can assure you that anybody that is contemplating crime or any illegality will be dealt with by the security operatives.
“We are traders; we don’t know anything about Boko Haram infiltrating markets in the state. Lagos is already secured. We don’t need anybody under any guise to put us on the edge.
“Lagos is the most secure state in Nigeria and that won’t allow anybody to come and do any rubbish in Lagos because if we see something, we say something. We are our own security.”
Inter-state toll gates will be effective –Criminologist
Renowned sociology, criminology and cybercrime expert at the Lagos State University (LASU) Ojo, Professor Adedeji Oyenuga, said although he had no knowledge of any official statement from the government or security agencies regarding the issue at stake, security is still everybody’s affair.
“I only read about insurgency groups such as Boko Haram planning to infiltrate the South West on social media and not through official statement from the government. But then, we must not take the issue of security with levity,” he said.
Professor Oyenuga recalled the period when Nigeria operated regional government and the toll-gate system on the highways, saying mounting security checks on travellers from one region to another was known to be effective.
“But today,” he pointed out, “We don’t really operate such a system again.”
He added, “Even though we see security agents doing stop-and-search almost everywhere, we don’t see inter-state security checkpoints except in the troubled states of the North and the South East. Whereas we really need to check people even if it is for a short time that we are facing security challenge as a nation.
“Though we see security officers, especially the police on the road and at times, close to one another, they don’t seem to care about the people transiting.”
While acknowledging that insurgent groups could easily move from one place to another through big vehicles, especially articulated vehicles that move goods and animals together with human beings, the don maintained that such local migration, when not properly checked, poses a great security risk to the people in their proposed destinations.
He wondered why the security agents would be interested in checking small buses and cars while leaving the articulated vehicles on the highways.
He said, “For me, it means those trailers and their passengers don’t mean anything to the security agents, which ought not to be.
“We can’t just come out and make empty pronouncement of a security threat without making effort to walk the talk.
“So, we need to do due diligence and in this regard, to collect intelligence. We need to monitor those young boys from the North, especially in areas where they reside heavily. We have such locations all over Lagos and other South Western states.
“Criminal elements can easily creep into our midst. So, we have to overhaul our intelligence gathering by making sure we know who they are and what they are doing and quickly stop them if they are planning any attack.
“That is why I will recommend the inter-state border system where we can do appropriate checks on people moving from one state to another, especially in suspicious manner, so that we can protect the lives and property of the people in their proposed destinations.
“Through that, those with evil intention can be easily detected and prevented from carrying out their plans.
“I have witnessed situations where men of the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) would stop buses on the highways, checking for people peddling drugs locally, only to end up discovering people carrying weapons illegally as well.
“So, if we do checks like this also on trailers that move animals and human beings together, we may have good information to rely on.
“I will also urge the Federal Government to make it mandatory for every Nigerian to have the national identity number.
“By this, every Nigerian can be properly profiled with detailed information about individuals. The compulsory registration should be for everybody, educated or not.
“Another necessary measure is that people should no longer hire domestic staff, especially security guards without proper profiling of their identities as people with no identification can easily compromise to do evil, including killing.”
When asked about the relevance of the state-owned neighbourhood watch corps in the matter, he said though the members do bit of intelligence gathering, they can do more if they are well-remunerated and motivated.
“I want to believe that if we do all of these things, it will be difficult for insurgent groups to penetrate the state,” Professor Oyenuga said.
Residents confident but…
According to the National Population Commission (NPC), the six states in the South West have a combined population of over 50 million, with Lagos accounting for over 40 per cent of the head count.
In recent past, the Nigeria’s most-populated state narrowly escaped activities of suspected terrorists with the arrest of Boko Haram elements and recovery of suspected Explosive Ordinance Device (EOD) in some parts of the state and border communities with Ogun State.
In one of such arrests, the Joint Civilian Task Force arrested six suspected Boko Haram members around Ijora Badia, who confessed to have escaped from Borno State, while the military also claimed to have acted on intelligence report to arrest some other members of the notorious gang in the state.
When Saturday Tribune went to town to feel the pulse of residents of the state on the matter, nearly all respondents expressed confidence that the state is too well guarded for any serious havoc by the terrorists.
Most of them also said they were not losing sleep because of the news, though they unanimously believed that it is still important for all hands to be on deck to ensure no terror group has a place in any part of the state.
Some of the respondents described the various terror groups as beasts in human skin.
As of August 2024, no fewer than 55,910 persons were reportedly killed while 21,000 others were abducted by terror groups operating in different parts of the country in the last four years, according to a new study by the Observatory of Religious Freedom in Africa that looked at terror attacks since 2019
The study, which was released to the public in 2024, also revealed that more than 55,000 of the victims involved included Muslims and Christians, meaning that the terror groups are no respecters of religion or ethnicity.
The Commissioner of Police, Olanrewaju Ishola and the Force Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, refused to comment when Saturday Tribune contacted them.
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