Harassment by hoodlums appears to be taking a new dimension in Lagos these days.

What is not disputable is that it is spreading and the hoodlums are becoming more daring in their acts, aside from growing in numbers in each of the locations they usually assemble.

Mostly boys, they usually accost pedestrians and motorists at night. While they go after walkers in places not well lit, asking for money or other personal belongings, especially phones, they go after motorists whose vehicles breakdown demanding for money and phones.

It was observed that the hoodlums go after pedestrians that are well dressed. Also, they usually swamp on motorists, whose vehicles are immobile, demanding for money and sometimes they either ask or steal personal items like phones of the driver and the other occupants of the vehicle. It was learnt that at times they come in batches demanding for money from their victims.

For the louts harassing motorists, it is usually common acts along major roads and highways in Lagos like the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, while hooligans going after commuters do that at bus stops, and around bridges including dark spots within streets.

And the hoodlums approach their prey with undeterred determination to force something out of him or her and it would only take a courageous and daring fellow to free himself from their grip without getting injured physically or losing an item in the process.

A motorist, Abiona Ogunwale, said that his car had issue with acceleration, so he had to stop around Five Star Bus Stop and within seconds over 10 boys coming from different directions walked towards him and his car. He added that initially one of them showed concern, not knowing it was just to engage him, but after they demanded for money threatening to remove something from my car.

“One of them was even audacious, as he asked for my phone. I had to give them N10,000 before they allowed me to push the car to the petrol station within the corridor. And it was not that the money was to push the car as the two boys who assisted in pushing the car to the filling station asked for N3000 to do so.”

A trader, who preferred to be anonymous, said he had had encounter with the boys on three occasions.

“I live within Agege axis and have genuine reason to move under the Pen Cinema Bridge at night based on the nature of my business. It also warrants my crossing the rail to the other side of Pen Cinema.

“It was so serious at a time that it was hellish to pass under the bridge at night without having an encounter with these night marauders. I was a victim on more than one occasion but the good Lord rescued me from their hands in all their encounters.”

He observed that complaints must have been lodged to the appropriate quarters which culminated into emergence of policemen that were once assigned to keep surveillance under the bridge that immediately nib in the bud, the activities of the hoodlums with consequential effect of peace and tranquility under the bridge.

“But unfortunately, the team of police keeping surveillance under the bridge suddenly disappeared giving room for the boys to return to carry out their nefarious acts. That probably could also be premised on the awareness of the proximity of a police station.

“However, closeness of the police station is not enough to completely obliterate the activities of the hoodlums that have shifted their base to the rail from the bridge.

“Anyone crossing the rail, especially far into the night would be at their mercy. On one of the occasions that I crossed, as I descended the makeshift staircase to the rail, I was surrounded by young boys between the ages of sixteen and twenty.

“Although they were civil in the sense that I was not attacked, the spokesperson among them, probably the leader told his cohorts not to attack me or take anything forcefully from me because I was carrying a bag containing few food items.

“He told me that they were hungry and were out to get money to eat and that I should give them money.  That night, I had not much money on me and informed him, but he insisted that I must part with something.  Thank God, I needed not search forlong before I reached one hundred naira I had which would not affect my transport back home that night. I also thank God so much for the poor illumination of that place that did not allow their leader to see how much I gave him, who released me immediately after he got the money, not knowing how much I gave him.

“ I moved swiftly too and it was when I had climbed the other side that he shouted: “One hundred naira?”. I replied that, that was what I could afford and moved away.

“I also knew very well that it was God that came to my rescue as He always does and I did not take that for granted.  I had heard the experience of a man like me in that very area before the arrival of the police to under the bridge, who was accosted and beaten and still collected money from him. I cannot remember if he was spared of his phone.  That night, I was having my phone with me in addition to other things I carried, but the good Lord saved me from their hands.

“In the light of the above, we plead for constant light under the bridge as it helps scare the hoodlums. While the road from Guinness to PenCimena is lit every night, which discourages the operation of hoodlums, the other side of the road, from National filling station, along Isokoko Police Station axis towards Pen Cinema has been left in darkness, shortly at the inception of this administration that removed all the poles with the hope that it had an alternative to the type of bright light that was there on that road.

“There had been series of nefarious activities of hoodlums who had been taking advantage of the darkness to operate along that road.  While we appreciate the rehabilitation of the road, almost from Ikeja to Pen-Cinema, we also ask for the return of the poles on that road which made people to move freely at night without any fear before,” he said.

A resident of Ago, Maureen Okechukwu, said she boarded a bus from Oshodi to Cele. According to her, she alighted at Cele and while the conductor was about giving three passengers the balance of their fare two boys walked towards them and within seconds one of the boys took her phone, with the boys crossing the expressway, running in opposite direct but to under the bridge across the canal.

Okechukwu said that many residents have had negative tales of losing personal items to these boys.

“Ironically, there is a police post and some police officers stationed on both sides of the expressway and I am sure these police officers know about the activities of these boys but often pay less attention or feel unperturbed about the plight of residents. Even motorists are not spared, those whose vehicles break down around that corridor.”

Speaking to the concerns raised by residents on the activities of these hoodlums, Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. GbengaOmotosho said it is wrong for anyone or group of boys to be harassing people, adding that the attitude is not allowed in Lagos.
“We would talk to law enforcement agents to keep their eyes on the troubled spots such as Pen Cinema and Oshodi.

“We do not want such harassment of people in a state that is trying to boost tourism and commerce,” he said.