Alaba-Rago: Inside community of sex, drug, violent crimes

SUBAIR MOHAMMED, LEKAN OLABULO and TOLA ADENUBI, spoke with stakeholders on the Alaba Rago conundrum. Their findings:

THE notorious trading and residential community in Lagos, Alaba Rago, will become history once the nod of the court is received to flush out the inhabitants, the police have said.

After an eviction notice issued to the dwellers and traders in the community, dominated by Northerners and foreigners who are mostly of the Fulani stock, a fightback has ensued, with the inhabitants suing the state government.

The police in the state are however saying that once a court order is obtained to eject them, nothing would stop the exercise.

The National Drug Law and Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) also told Saturday Tribune that the community had been under its radar.

Both institutions spoke as more disturbing news of murder, drug, armed robbery, illicit sex, among other felonious activities, emerge from the community.

Police authorities in the state promised continuous and constant monitoring of the security situation in the troubled market, situated along Lagos-Badagry Expressway following the recovery of arms and ammunition at a section of the market by men of the Ojo Divisional Police Station.

The spokesman of the state police command, Benjamin Hundeyin, a Superintendent of Police, was certain about the fate of the dwellers once the eviction notice is transformed into an eviction order.

It took a combined team of men of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) and the Lagos State Task Force on the Environment and Other Related Offences to serve the eviction notice on the inhabitants of the community as the traders become more towards the agents of the state government.

Speaking to Saturday Tribune on the controversial market, Hundeyin said: “On the recovered arms and ammunition, the suspects who were arrested in connection with them have been charged to court. They were transferred to the headquarters here and they were arraigned in court.

“There is an eviction notice. It is still an eviction notice. Anytime the court gives the evacuation order, to eject them, we will implement the order.”

On what the command is doing to recover other arms and ammunition that might still be in the market, the police image maker said, “I don’t want to divulge our strategies but we are doing everything possible to ensure that all criminals in Lagos State are identified, arrested and made to face the wrath of the law.”

He advised traders at the market to cooperate with the police by providing information that could help in fishing out the criminals among them.

Spokesperson of the NDLEA, Mr Femi Babafemi, also told Saturday Tribune that “Alaba Rago is a community of interest to the NDLEA and that is why we have consistently put the place on our radar and raided the location to recover assorted illicit drugs and made arrests a number of times in recent past. We will continue to work with various stakeholders to ensure we cut access to and reduce availability of illicit drugs not only in Lagos but across the country.”

A ‘sin city’?

Las Vegas is a city in Nevada, a state in the United States of America. It is widely known as the Sin City because immorality – and, expectedly, crime – has become its symbol.

If the volume of alleged crimes and other unacceptable behaviours coming from Alaba Rago, as disclosed by security agencies, is anything to go by, the community should qualify as the ‘sin city’ of Lagos.

It is also a community constantly watching over itself as discovered by a Saturday Tribune correspondent who visited the place last week. As soon as the reporter set his foot there, he began to receive suspicious, unfriendly glances despite not wearing his identification card. His plan, to capture the sight and sound of the market on his camera, was quickly abandoned when strange eyes began to monitor his movement.

Originally, Alaba Rago was a livestock market. But over the years, the market, largely populated by Northern traders, has grown into a multipurpose trading zone and a haven for criminals, stolen items, arms and drugs.

One of the victims of the frequent traffic robbery attacks on the Lagos-Badagry Expressway is Bilikisu Ajani. The 25-year-old mother of one was robbed and killed by a gang of robbers.

The deceased’s brother, Sikiru Alao, a vulcaniser, recalled how he received a call from her sister around 10.00 p.m. on the fateful day before she became inaccessible afterwards.

Death in the night

What went wrong? Alao explained to Saturday Tribune: “My sister was returning from Ilorin, Kwara State, where she had gone for a social event in August 2021. She entered through Iyana-Ipaja to Iyana-Iba where she was expected to enter a commercial bus to her residence in Okoko.

“When she couldn’t get a bus in time, she decided to trek from Iyana-Iba towards LASU gate. While at this, she called to inform me that she had arrived safely and that she would be home in less than an hour. This was around past 10.00 p.m. We were eagerly waiting for her return.

“After an hour and she was yet to arrive, I called her but her phone had been switched off. I became apprehensive but there was nothing I could do at that odd hour. Therefore, in the morning, I visited Iyana-Iba, the spot she was when she made the call the previous night to inquire about her whereabouts.

“I saw a man at Iyana-Iba under bridge who told me that a woman was involved in an armed robbery attack the previous night. At this time, I knew something bad had happened. The man told me that he saw a woman being hounded by a gang of armed robbers as she was walking towards the LASU gate. They held machetes, knives and an iron rod. They were about four in number.

“He said they snatched her handbag and her phone and as she struggled to free herself from them, one of the armed robbers stabbed her with a knife on her neck and on her shoulder multiple times. She screamed. But nobody was there to rescue her.

“He said she attempted to run but she was held down and her handbag with her phone was snatched away from her. She struggled to free herself while she screamed for help but no one responded to her distress call.

“At least with the narration, we have had a lead as to where we would direct our search. So, we started going from one hospital to another along Lagos-Badagry Expressway. But our fears were heightened because we didn’t know if she would be found alive or dead. We also reported at the police station on Ojo Road. About three weeks after, we got a call from the police station that a middle-aged woman was found lifeless along the road and that her corpse had been deposited at the morgue in Yaba.

“They invited us to come and identify her. The police officer gave us the phone number of the morgue attendant. And when we visited, our worst fear was confirmed. The body that was found by the roadside was Bilikisu’s corpse. She was stabbed to death by traffic robbers. Later, we were told by the police that two of the armed robbers were killed at the spot where Bilikisu’s corpse was discovered.

“The Lagos State government needs to do something urgently to check the menace of traffic robbery, especially assault and harassment by traders in Alaba Rago who have literally taken over the entire axis. They load their metal and scrap items on the road, thereby turning a two-traffic lane to one and causing heavy gridlock. Apart from this, they indulge in drug and other social vices but the government seem not to be serious with the eviction order handed to them” he lamented.

Home of stolen items?

Apart from the normal trading activities in livestock, groceries and other items, traders in Alaba Rago market are famous for dealing in stolen items, scrap metal and hard drugs.

This, according to Kehinde Sekoni, a commercial bus driver plying Okokomaiko-Orile route, is done in the open in the market.

According to him, there is a section in the inner market where notorious activities are carried out.

This, he stated, is where prostitutes and criminals like traffic robbers, unwind and pass the night after terrorising innocent residents and pedestrians.

Sekoni shared one of his experiences: “As far as crime is concerned, Hausa-Fulani are not the only culprit in Alaba Rago. It cuts across ethnic groups that are represented in the market.

“For instance, when I was robbed in the traffic alongside my passengers, although the robbers spoke pidgin English, I could easily tell who they were because their tongues gave them out. But I had heard other drivers share their experiences that they were robbed by either Igbo or Yoruba. So, I wouldn’t want us to tag a particular ethnic group as being behind the robbery incidents in Alaba-Rago.

“But talk of the use of drugs such as gum, cannabis and skunk, the Hausa-Fulani are unmatched. They not only sell sex enhancement drugs, they sniff gum and smoke weed. Let me share an encounter with you. On that fateful day around 9.00 p.m., I was driving home with five passengers in my car. When we got to Alaba-Rago, we were held in traffic.

“There were hawkers scampering. They were running against the traffic. I knew something was amiss. Traffic robbery has been a recurring decimal, almost every night, on the Lagos-Badagry Expressway. But it is more pronounced at Alaba-Rago because of the presence of slum and brothel in the area.

“The robbers took advantage of the gridlock to dispossess motorists of their valuables. Nobody was killed but one of my passengers was injured. Her head was hit with a gun butt.

“They smashed my car glasses with machetes and collected all our phones, handbags and money and fled through the market. The robbery lasted for almost five minutes but they raided about 20 private cars which was their target.

“I visited the scene the following day to search for my SIM card and other personal items that were stolen from me. But I was shocked to discover that most of the items that were stolen from us, especially phones were already on display for sale but mine was not there. Another victim of the attack told me that they had gone to format them after which they would display them for sale. They were the phones that were stolen from passengers in the traffic.

“Most times, they are responsible for the gridlocks along the axis. They cause artificial blockage and once traffic builds up, they explore it to rob passengers and motorists.

“They smash the culverts on the road, remove the irons in them and gather the debris by the roadside to be sold. They display them in the open.

“Also, they do drugs. They smoke weed, skunk and sniff gum. And once they get high, they take to the road to rob pedestrians and motorists. There was a time officials from the Lagos Task Force led by CSP Jejeloye raided the market. They discovered arms and hard drugs. If you take a close look at the rail line, you will see that they have erected cubicles where they sleep at night.

“They have taken over the entire road. Even those selling scrap items indulge in the sale of stolen items. Look at that generator (pointing at a generator waiting to be loaded in a truck), can you call that a scrap item? Most of the household items that were stolen are sold to them and they would load them unto the truck to be taken out of Lagos. They are not scraps but stolen items.

The most damaging of all these acts is the drug abuse which many of the Hausa trader have got used to. The Lagos State government and the anti-drug agency must intervene.”

We are helpless –Works Controller

The Federal Controller of Works, Lagos State, Mr Kayode Popoola, said the ministry had observed the continuous vandalisation of highway culverts by yet-to-be identified metal scavengers, mostly of Northern descent, at the Alaba-Rago section of the Badagry Expressway and Coconut section of the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway.

Speaking with Saturday Tribune, the official of the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing lamented that the ministry had over the years raised the alarm over the issue but the ugly trend has continued.

Popoola said: “That is what these ‘boola’ boys (scavengers) do. In the middle of the night, they will break the culverts with hammer, remove the copper iron holding the culvert and make away with it.

“It is not peculiar only to Alaba-Rago along the Badagry Expressway. They also do it in Apapa around Coconut and Kirikiri area along the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway.

“We have complained repeatedly but they won’t stop. We can’t have police or security officials stay along the culverts or all night. They do these things in the dead of the night and we don’t really know what we can do about these people.”

Reporter’s note

Time is 9.15 a.m. on Wednesday. And it is business as usual for traders and scrap metal merchants at the market. They have taken over a portion of the ever-busy road to conduct their trading.

For weeks, the market has been in the eye of the storm for alleged nefarious activities and the quit notice issued to the traders elapsed some weeks ago.

Despite the quit notice, activities, legitimate and illegal, continue at full strength.

While the metal and households equipment merchants disrupt free flow of traffic with their trucks that are stationed on the road, hawkers and load carriers cause commotion to pedestrians, motorists and the outlawed motorcyclists as they wriggle their ways in-between moving vehicles to offload their goods unto the waiting trucks.

And those of them that are off work are seen standing at strategic locations on the median, either sniffing gum or smoking weed and are on guard for possible invasion.

The gum sniffers who are mainly Hausa-Fulani are quick to notice the presence of this reporter.

As they fix their eyes on him, they rebuff every attempt to start a friendly conversation by pretending not to understand even pidgin English.

As this reporter moves away from Alaba-Rago towards Okokomaiko, the short walk becomes very revealing as some Hausa-Fulani boys are seen breaking the rubble stones at the road construction site, removing the iron rod and putting them on display for sale by the roadside for their customers.