Lagos task force arrest 85 hoodlums, impound 130 motorcycles, recover gun

[MrVan]

Lagos State Task force on Environmental and Special Offenses (Enforcement) Unit, on Wednesday, arrested at least, 85 suspected miscreants at different locations of the state in the ongoing flushing exercise of criminal hideouts.

The combined team of task force and the police also impounded 130 motorcycles popularly called "Okada" for violation of various traffic laws of the state in a renewed massive onslaught against the commercial operators. There was a shocking discovery of a gun in one of the seized motorcycles at Elere Police Station, Agege area. The police however, refused to give more details about the discovery for security purposes, saying, manhunt has begun for the owner of the bike.

The miscreants, who are currently been detained pending trial in the magistrate court were arrested in areas such as; Oshodi, Ojota, Isolo, Ilasamaja and Cele on early in the week and brought to the task force headquarters in Alausa on a Black Maria.

Those arrested included 14 under-aged children. The children will be taken to one of the Lagos State Correctional Centers for Boys for correction.

Worried by the rising reported cases of armed robberies and violent attacks on innocent citizens in the state and with determination to curb the trend, Chairman of the task force, Bayo Sulaiman, while parading the suspected hoodlums, said they would be arraigned in court soonest while those found culpable would be punished according to the laws of the state.

He stated that the task force had stepped up enforcement against street miscreants as they were mostly behind criminal acts across the state, saying that "we don't want them to come back to the main roads again. We are going to charge them to court. The exercise will be continuous."

Also, in the ongoing clampdown on erring commercial motorcyclists, the task force and the police had impounded 130 motorcycles in about a week across Lagos metropolis.

According to Sulaiman,okadas were not expected to ply the highways, ride against traffic and breach the laws of the state and many of them were being used for criminal purposes.

He explained that while carrying out a routine search on one of the seized bikes, a pistol was recovered by the task force and "we are going after the owner of the motorcycle as he might be an armed robber."

In a renewed directive not to release seized goods from environmental offenders, the task force has auctioned a large number of seized goods from traders who flouted environmental laws across the metropolis.  Items auctioned included; clothing, shoes, bicycles, among others while perishable goods are sent to various motherless and remand homes.

 

Vanguard Nigeria