Why we are in Lagos – Suspects

Moshood Adebayo

The suspects who were arrested today by operatives of the Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Agency, have disclosed that they left Jigawa State to seek greener pasture in Lagos.

The Lagos task force arrested 123 suspected hoodlums believed to be coming from Jigawa State and impounded 323 commercial motorcycles.

The leader of the suspects, Shuaibu Haruna, said they were attracted to the state by the opportunities that are believed to abound in it.

He also lamented that lack of financial support to cater to their families forced them to leave Jigawa for Lagos.

“There is no tangible business anyone can do in Jigawa; I have a family that depends on me for survival. So, I decided to leave for Lagos where I was told by my friends that opportunities are available.”

Haruna also told the task force that his major target was to raise money in Lagos as an okada rider.

He also disclosed that they were brought into Lagos by a truck with registration no: Jigawa HJA-680XA which conveyed 48 okadas after paying the sum of N7,000 each.

The truck was said to have been  impounded in Agege by officers of the agency after trailing it from the Toll Gate end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

Taskforce chairman, Yinka Egbeyemi, during a press conference disclosed that the agency, since intensifying its clampdown onokada, had impounded no fewer than 323 in last five days.

Egbeyemi, who also confirmed that all the persons intercepted were from Jigawa, added that 48 of them came into the state with theirokadas in search of greener pastures.

He also stated that all the affected people were thoroughly searched, with no incriminating thing found on them.

“While our men were on patrol early this morning, they succeeded in arresting these 123 people, with 48 bikes. They said they were from Jigawa. Forty-eight of them were with bikes, others were those who came for greener pasture,” he said.

Egbeyemi said the Commissioner of Police, Zubair Muazu, who had been informed of the development, added that he had set up a panel that would profile the arrested people.

Meanwhile, the agency has also disclosed that the agency had 4,068 impounded okadas in its stores waiting for directives to crush them.

The commercial motorcycles were said to have been impounded for riding against traffic in the state.