In Lagos, you have maiguards coming in from Niger [Republic]. After six months, your security guard tells you his father is ill and he must travel home but assures you he is coming back to you. However, before he leaves, he brings a friend to work in his stead, temporarily. The reality is, he never returns. You can do a survey of everyone in Lagos. Ask for how long their security guards stay and where they come from. It is a serious security issue and I am concerned this is a landscaping strategy,” a resident told Saturday Tribune.
There is a particular building in Shangisha that is being inhabited by foreigners. The house, particularly a tree shrub in front of it, has become a melting pot of sort for these non-Nigerian young men and fairly old men with all manner of odd jobs and crafts like tailoring, cobbling, wheel-barrow trading and okada business. Even beggars, both male and female, from the northern part of the country have also formed the habit of napping in the same arena and expectedly, a mini prayer ground is also created under the almost-withered tree, with mats which outsiders are not allowed to step on. Strangely, nearly everybody relate with the said building, which outer part also houses a small kiosk of odds and ends, being managed by another Northerner. With the rent of a two-bedroom flat within the compound set at about N1 million, it is doubtful if the relatively large population of these foreigners going in and coming out of the compound, is connected to the main building.
A “commercial” practice in places like Shangisha where such low-earning traders and artisans will find it difficult paying rent and want to do business around the neighbourhood involves an arrangement when such people, irrespective of ethnic background, will be required to pay a token to keep their wares safe with the tenants doing business with them, or in most cases the landlords. Once their goods are safe, some of these people get to sleep anywhere and those into night trading get to “sell” the night out, while smoking the day away. The arrangements appear to currently suit everyone involved.
Hunted as hunters?
While such gathering and “colony” living may not be an immediate worry to an upscale area of the state like Shangisha and even Magodo Phase 2, where a popular suya spot’s employees in their tens, obviously living together in a low-rent apartment believed to have been sourced by the owner of the hugely-patronized spot, there are parts of the state and countless residents worrying over the free in-and-out movement of migrant foreign nationals in the state, especially in the wake of the increased killings in the south-western part of the country, allegedly by the these ‘strange people’ who incidentally are the most favoured for local security hiring in many communities in the state, both upscale and low-scale, as well as many corporate institutions, even with the full complement of uniformed and trained corporate security.
The foreign men are believed to be mostly from Sudan, Mali, Cameroon, the Republic of Niger, Chad and the Republic of Benin.
In social media rage, many residents are querying the usual practice of these foreign maiguards quitting their jobs often in less than a year over excuses considered as frivolous and bringing in hand-picked replacement only for them to relocate elsewhere within the state, instead of traveling home as they usually claim in their excuses, to attend to family, domestic, financial, business or health matters.
With suspicion now boiling over in the southern part of the country over the alleged hidden agenda of herdsmen trying to forcibly spread all over the country and the globally-vilified official policy of the Federal Government to create government-recognised settlements for them, whether Nigerians or foreigners, in all states of the federation, outside of their ancestral homes, deep meanings are now being read into this long-established swap arrangement and many residents are calling for government attention and people’s vigilance.
The bigger worry for many residents is having these people who Yoruba would describe as needles without thread manning their security and that of their households.
And the worry is not for nothing
Not long ago, Tanko Abdulateef, a 22-year-old security guard, killed his employer, Mabel Mba Okafor, in the Ajah area of the state and because he had no particular fixed address, he simply absconded to Bali in Taraba State after fatally stabbing his bureau de change-operating boss.
50-year-old Okafor was found dead in the pool of her blood in her room at Close 9, House J68B, Ajah Lekki, with the criminal guard taking away from the victim, three phones, trinkets, money and a lot of clothes, all of which were recovered from him when arrested.
The police report on the crime stated that “On August 17, 2016, there was a murder of one Mrs Mabel Mba Okafor. She was killed and the policemen went there and discovered that the house had been ransacked and property carted away. The woman had a house guard but the guard was nowhere to be found. The body of the victim was examined and it was noticed that she was stabbed and her stomach ripped open.
“The body was moved to the mortuary and policemen from the division did necessary scene of crime investigations, while the matter was transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID). They were able to identify the suspect to be the guard of the victim, who they tracked to Bali in Taraba State.
“After about three days in Bali, they (police detectives) were able to recover some of the phones stolen from the victim before eventually arresting the suspect where he was hiding.”
Suspecting deep military tactic of the swap arrangement, the worried resident quoted earlier also alleged that, “Just get a maiguard nearby, tell him you need a maiguard and watch him recruit for you. They all come from Niger Republic and they don’t stay for too long. They will leave but get you somebody to stay, who in turn will leave and get someone else before he leaves. It is worth investigating. I thought it was only in my area but I visited somebody’s office and observed the same procedure. Can we get government to react to the practice of employing Nigeriens, Chadians, and Beninese as maiguards? Let them insist that every employer of security guard should submit their profiles with photo to an office at Alausa. These guys are engaged in a reconnaissance of our communities.”
Crying wolf?
A security expert and managing director of SSV Protection Services Ltd, Mr Felix Olorunda, agreed with the worried residents and even before his likes are stepping into the matter, some residents and organisations are already being proactive about it by ordering the sacking of their foreign Fulani maiguards who cannot be traced anywhere when security is breached either directly by them, or collaborating with outsiders.
Olorunda told Saturday Tribune that the practice had been on for a while, adding that some of the itinerant foreign Fulani maiguards are married and have their wives and children back at their home states and countries, majority are simply bachelors in their teens.
“They are Nigeriens, Malians, Beninese and Cameroonians and so forth. They come and test ground if they can settle down. But in no time, you hear them saying they are going home to see their wives who just give birth or bury their dead or go do farming and all that. But as they are going, they will bring somebody to replace them. At times, they come back after about three months and when coming, they may decide to come with their wives and all that. And by that time, they may get accommodation of their own and start selling some petty items to augment their salaries.”
Mr Felix, a retired soldier, pointed out that “these people” are everywhere and conspicuous across Lagos.
“They are not hiding and so nobody in Lagos can deny noticing their presence,” he said. And Saturday Tribune investigation revealed that they are, for example, at Owoyemi Street in New Oko Oba, Owodunni Street around Toyin-Allen in Ikeja and Opebi Link Road, Opebi, Ikeja.
Nowadays, some religious denominations don’t even engage them again as security guards either for night or daytime duties. They said they are no longer comfortable having them around.
A pastor with one of the Pentecostal churches, for example, told Saturday Tribune on the condition of anonymity that the policy of the church he attended now was not to employ Nigerien or Malians and even Hausas or Fulanis as maiguards and that the policy was almost two years running.
He, however, pointed out that the church had been relaxed on the policy until recently when it decided to take it more seriously again.
The reason for this, he noted, is simple. “With the current security challenges in the country, we all need to apply wisdom in whatever we do. So, we prefer to employ Christians and persons we understand their language and culture,” the cleric explained.
Mr Olorunda confirmed this development to Saturday Tribune, adding that many private homes and companies in Lagos don’t also want them again. But in real situation, he pointed out that is not the case, because so many people still engage their services just because they want cheap labour.
“You know, so many people and even companies want security guards but don’t want to pay something reasonable to them as salaries. They want to pay them N10,000, N15,000 or at most, N20,000 monthly. And because of that, they would not go for professional and trained security guards who will bring guarantors and who you will do security and background checks and all that, on.
“Even at that, the issue is that it is not as if those professional guards are collecting huge salaries. Some of them are being paid as low as N30,000 monthly which many people or companies still consider to be huge amount. Though, they will also be provided with uniform, and some incentives like insurance and health allowance and all that. But many don’t want to pay all that and therefore go for maiguard they don’t know anything about.
Mr Olorunda said that was why he was surprised that some people who are wealthy and educated and could conveniently afford to hire professional domestic workers, including the security guards, still go for maiguards and all that simply because they can hire them cheap.
“Even some expatriates who are business owners and who you think should know better are doing the same thing. But it is unprofessional for somebody to hire one guard and expecting such guard to work 24/7. The ideal thing is to have minimum of two guards as they will need to alternate their schedules. But having one person permanently all day, all night and yet still pay such person a peanut like N20,000 or N30,000 as maximum is not professional,” he explained
He noted that the implication is huge as it is not advisable for someone to just make an unfamiliar person their personal security guard. “To do so is to attract heinous crimes like those in the homes of wealthy individuals. That is why it is ridiculous for somebody who can afford to live in places like Banana Island, Dolphin Estate or Victoria Garden City here in Lagos to hire just anybody with no trace or identity and with no background checks nor guarantor as domestic staff. It is unheard of but it is happening,” he said.
Regarding the suspicion that most of those maiguards may have motives other than earning a decent living in Nigeria, Mr Felix said such was highly possible.
“But I think majority of them come to Nigeria for empowerment. It is like Nigerians go to the US to work for many nationals from the neighbouring countries. Many of them, in my opinion, see Nigeria as where they can make money and settle, especially since they didn’t go to school and they don’t have property or something substantial that will tie them down at home. So, they come for any type of jobs in Nigeria. And most times, they start with car washing or scrap scavenging and then riding tricycles or motorcycles. And before long, they start having girlfriends who are Nigerians and interacting with people around and in the process, they get familiar with the system. But on the other hand, all these do not foreclose that some of them actually have ulterior motive, including armed robbery whenever the opportunity presents itself.
“One, their true identities are unknown. They have nothing to lose. Also because they have no traceable address, they are back home immediately should any bad thing happen. That is why it is like we are sitting on a keg of gunpowder. Unfortunately, majority of them don’t even hear or understand Hausa or Fulani, let alone communicate in English, but we often refer to them as Hausas and Fulanis. But the truth is that majority, if not all, are not.”
He gave an instance where he reported those clustering around Opebi Link Road in Ikeja to the Lagos State neighbourhood security people so that they could question them.
“I did that because of my worry, having seen them as security threat to the area because they are just very many and they have no specific accommodation except Marwa around them. I suspect they sleep inside those Marwa as all they need to do is to cover their two entrances with tarpaulin and sleep right there in the open. At the end of the day, immigration people came to whisk them away but surprisingly, they returned to the place that same day. On my enquiry, I was told that they hired a Nigerian lawyer who went to effect their release, claiming that they were Nigerians and from Maiduguri, Borno State. You can imagine that, twisting fact because of money without considering people’s lives and property and without being patriotic. And virtually all of them will claim to be from one northern state or the other. If they are not from Yobe, they will be from Borno or Kano and so on. But after some time, when they get closer, you get to know their real identities,” he said.
He gave series of examples, including the one that reportedly killed both his boss and her mother in Ikoyi recently.
“I also know of a recent incident that happened in one of the churches on Charity Road in Abule Egba. The maiguard there, after telling the pastor that he was going home, brought another person to replace him. And about a week after, the church generator was stolen and both the new maiguard and the one he replaced could not be found. Nobody knows where to trace them to as we speak.
“But funny enough, the same church still went ahead to employ another maiguard who is much younger just because it considers paying salary in the range of N50,000 monthly to a professional security guard as expensive for the church,” he said.
‘Lagos can be easily overrun’
As tension mounts across the country following the allegations that Fulani herdsmen are responsible for the killing and kidnapping of innocent people, with the latest being the killing of the daughter of the Afenifere chieftain, Pa Reuben Fasoranti, on Shagamu-Ore Road last week, residents have continued to express their fear over the influx of foreigners into the state.
According to investigations, many residents of the Shasha/Bammeke axis of the Alimoso Local Government part of Lagos State have continued to raise questions about the large numbers of a group of foreigners mingling with them.
Going through areas such as Bammeke, Adesina, Bamisike, Babalola, Taiwo/Kehinde and other streets surrounding Shasha and Egbeda, depicts a typical Sabon Gari with large concentration of these foreigners who can be linked to people from the Northern parts of the country.
The fears being nursed by the people spoken to are premised on the fact this set of people who are engaged in petty jobs like okada riding, local security provision, mobile tailoring, wheel barrow pushing, mobile barbing and so on, cannot speak any Nigerian local language.
When Saturday Tribune engaged one of the okada riders who plied Bammeke and Egbeda, he confessed that he was not a Nigerian but from neighbouring Niger Republic.
From investigations, many of the foreigners are from other smaller countries like Sudan, Mali, Niger, Togo and Benin Republic.
The concern of the residents has been heightened by the steady increase in the population of these foreigners which has been linked to porous borders and compromise by the different arms of government security forces.
According to Mr Lamidi, who lives in Bammeke, the foreigners who capitalise on the security lapses in Lagos and the country at large have imbibed the attitude of travelling to their home countries to invite more of their kinsmen to come along with them to states of their choice.
Some of the foreigners who have mastered either Hausa or Fulani language are said to have stayed in the northern states before they moved to Lagos and other parts of the South due to the war declared on Boko Haram terrorist group by the government forces.
The Sarkin Hausawa/Fulani of Shasha, Malam Illyasu Isa Kira, during an interview with Saturday Tribune, allayed the fears of people in the area, saying everything was under control. According to him, none of these elements was allowed to reside in the area without going through him.
The Sarkin said the moment anyone of them touches down in the area, he or she is brought to him for interrogation and profiling for the purpose of knowing where to trace him to and how to bring him to book if he commits any offence.
It was also observed by many residents that many of the foreigners residing around Bammeke/Shasha and Egbeda have become lords unto themselves as they carry out their activities without recourse to the law.
Madam Gloria, who has been operating her fruit store around Oguntade area of Bammeke while speaking to Saturday Tribune, compared the continued increase in the number of the foreigners to a gunpowder waiting to explode in the face of security officials. “We are at the mercy of these people who are large enough in size to overrun many parts of Lagos State in the event of any clash between them and their host communities,” she said.
Police react
The police in the state said they do not have control over the movement of security guards and other domestic staff, irrespective of their ethnicity. They said they could only act when such people are involved in crime.
The image maker of the state police command, Bala Elkana, while speaking with Saturday Tribune, emphasised the importance of not employing persons without proper identification.
“It is not ideal to employ any domestic worker who will live in your house with your family without knowing the necessary things about them. How do you check their criminal record? How do you track them in case of any crime?” he said.
“Employers should find out the necessary things about their domestic staff and also ensure that they get somebody who will stand as their guarantor,” the Lagos police spokesperson advised.
NIS will continue to checkmate influx of illegal persons into Nigeria —Spokesman
Spokesman for the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), DC Sunday James, refuted claims that foreigners walk freely into the country from neighbouring countries like Chad and Niger Republic, stating that the service was committed to ensuring that such illegal entries do not happen.
Speaking to Saturday Tribune, James said many Northerners in the South who engage in menial jobs like okada riding or sachet water sales are always misconstrued to be from neighbouring countries.
“For somebody like me that has spent close to 30 years in the NIS, there is this understanding that you cannot conclude on who a Nigerian is until you get very close to the person.
“By virtue of our training as immigration officers, we can tell you who a person is by mere sighting of the individual.
“We need to be careful about apportioning nationalities to people because it’s also a crime. Many of these perceived people from Niger are actually Nigerians from the Northern part of the country.
“However, I want to tell you that the NIS has not left its doors open for anybody to just walk or move into the country without being checked.
“I am assuring you that we will continue doing what we are doing to ensure that the nation’s borders are well manned to debar illegal entry into the country,” he said.