A medical doctor will not forget in a hurry, how he fell victim to some hoodlums operating a ‘base’ at the back of a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) park along the Ikorodu Expressway in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State.
The criminals, numbering about 10, had falsely accused the doctor and used the ensuing confusion to rob him of his mobile phone and the sum of N50,000. Although such an incident was strange to the doctor, it has been the fate of many Lagosians on a daily basis.
Lagosians coming in contact with hoodlums is commonplace. The gangsters converge on different locations – ‘base’, ‘abete’ or ‘joint’ – in the city under the guise of friendship to perpetrate various crimes.
‘Base’ is a term used to describe daily convergence points of hoodlums who rob, pick pockets and rape their female victims in some instances. Curiously, virtually every Lagos community, including the elite areas, has a base where hoodlums meet to spend unholy time together.
The doctor narrated his ordeal to operatives of the Rapid Response Squad after two of his assailants were arrested. He described the experience as scary. “On the day of the incident, I had visited two banks to do some transactions. I had successfully made a withdrawal in one of the banks and was heading towards another to make a deposit when the incident happened,” he said.
According to him, he had almost reached the bank when he received a call urging him to rush down to the hospital. “I quickly turned back and made my way to the hospital. When I got to the back of the BRT park, I saw a group of men who gathered around a table and then I heard one of them say ‘this is the man. He is the one.’ Immediately, about four of them surrounded me.
What actually surprised me was the fact that there were people around. They began to search me and I quickly brought out the money in my pockets as well as my mobile phone, since it was broad daylight. At first, I thought they were genuinely looking for some missing items. But it dawned on me that they had played a fast one on me after one of them collected my money and mobile phone and they all disappeared,” he stated.
If this hapless man was surprised at the incident, what happened next got him more confused.
“Rattled by the incident, I approached someone in the vicinity who appeared to be the oldest person around and told him that I needed some money for transportation. He went away only to come back with my phone and the sum of N3,000. He handed them to me and warned me to leave the area at once. I was as surprised I was scared. I left the vicinity but later met some RRS officers who arrested two of my attackers,” he added.
Femi, a resident of Agric Bus Stop in Ikorodu, described the presence of hoodlums as very strong in the area. According to him, their modus operandi is to converge daily on the base behind the BRT site and assess passers-by for cash and other valuables they might be carrying. They create confusion and use the disorder to rob their victims.
“Another strategy they adopt is to get close to people and pick their pockets. There are many of them. They always have a way of escaping from the scene. They vanish for some days and return after the police might have gone and moved on to other crimes,” Femi said.
The First Gate area of Ikorodu is another part of the town where hoodlums gather to unleash mayhem on the residents. It was learnt that some of the hoodlums that converged there are actually members of different cult groups and are always engaged in supremacy conflicts with rival groups in the area.
There have been accusations and counter accusations by the warring cult groups in the area as regards which of them was responsible for some crimes committed in the area.
A member of one of the groups, Aiye, who pleaded for anonymity, blamed the rival cult group, Eiye, for many of the crimes in the area. “I can boldly tell you that crimes are perpetrated by the Eiye gang in this area. I have even fallen victim to some of their criminal activities. I was once robbed early in the morning. There are many of them here. Most of the people who are part of the gang are miscreants. In Odogunyan, Igbogbo and other parts of Ikorodu, they are all touts. You will see them at the bus stop of First Gate every day, especially at night, robbing people who return home very late,” he argued.
Residents of Ikeja GRA, Sogunle and Ladipo have also suffered the criminal activities of hoodlums who daily gather around the premises of a radio station at Adekunle Fajuyi Road, Ikeja. There have been tales of armed robbery, pick-pocketing and even rape. Investigations revealed that the Shogunle base of the hoodlums was formed many years ago when miscreants gathered in the area to smoke Indian hemp and consume other dangerous drugs. Curiously, the base has remained despite constant raids by law enforcement agents and efforts of the state government, from the days of the immediate past governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola.
A resident of the area, Bolawole, told Saturday Tribune that “there is a small bush that runs along the rail line just beside the premises of the radio station and the barbed wire installed by the state government. Criminal elements use the place as cover during the day to smoke Indian hemp. The bush is used to hide dangerous weapons and women are sometimes dragged in there and raped.
“They rob people of their phones and jump into the radio station premises and other adjoining business premises along the railway line to escape arrest by the police. There is a footpath across the rail line that links the Lagos–Abeokuta Expressway. They usually attack their victims very early in the morning and late at night. Interestingly, on occasions, some staff members of the radio station have fallen victim,” Bolawole added.
The Aluminium Village in the Dopemu area of Agege is not spared the menace of the hoodlums. People who ply their trades there had lost goods worth several millions of naira to the criminals, who also have a base somewhere close to the market.
A trader who did not want his name in print claimed that the criminal elements had continued to thrive in the area due to the statuses of some of their parents. “Most of them are untrained sons of some of the landlords and building owners around the market,” he stated.
Another trader, Hafeez, sought urgent police intervention in the area as the issue is becoming worrisome. “We really need the police to sanitise the entire Aluminum Village and rid it of these hoodlums. They have become a thorn in our flesh. They burgle our shops. Some of them are so powerful that our vigilance group members have found it almost impossible to curtail them. They have no regard for the local police division in the area. We want the state commissioner of police to come to our aid,” he added.
Dairo Street in the Ketu area is another notorious area where hoodlums gather to torment residents. There are different points that serve as bases to different factions of hoodlums in the area. A popular Indian hemp seller directly opposite Olufowobi Street usually plays host to the hoodlums at one of the notorious joints there. The spot is always a beehive of activities, since people from different parts of Ketu call daily to smoke Indian hemp and drink alcohol.
For 23-year-old Juwon, a resident of Dairo Street in Ikosi-Ketu, the issue of base (abete) is not new in the area. “It is not a new thing. There are many of them. There is one at the beginning of Dairo Street. You will also find one here, opposite Olufowobi Street. There is another one at Oyiboro Street, but you notice activities in that one late in the night. You always see these boys gather around their base doing nothing other than smoking and drinking alcohol. Most of them wear expensive clothes and jewellery, which makes it curious what they do for a living,” Juwon said.
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The origin of ‘base’
The idea of ‘base’ in Lagos started as a neighbourhood meeting points for young boys and, in some places, adults. It provided an avenue to unwind and discuss issues of common interests, especially ones pertaining to the community. The places that started as recreational points are now fast turning to spots where crimes are orchestrated. It was gathered that these so-called bases springing up in different parts of the metropolis also provide veritable grounds for recruiting gang members.
Giving insights into some of the activities going on at the convergence point, a security operative in the state told Saturday Tribune of how two young boys who stole a cell phone from a lady at Mile 12 were pursued and caught among other their peers in a ‘base’ located on Owoseni Street.
“After searching the well-decorated abode, we discovered weeds suspected to be Indian hemp, two cutlasses and assorted handsets, which some older ones among the suspects claimed ignorance of,” the security personnel stated.
Similar tales were told of Okekoto, in the Ikorodu axis, where pipeline vandals usually relax. “Before the onslaughts by military personnel, Okekoto, Isawo and the entire axis were dotted with bases where young people go to congregate. Nobody had any inkling the dirty things going on there. What we noticed was that they watched football games, played ludo games and drink. We never knew that they had turned the gathering to a criminal haven where unwholesome activities are planned,” said Alhaji Hassan Aremu, a resident of Ishawo.
What makes the issue more worrisome is what the residents described as the tacit support given by politicians in the state for such joints. For instance, it was gathered that as a show of appreciation, some politicians actually created such joints and furnish them with electronic gadgets, ostensibly to relieve them of stress after a day’s schooling or work.
“We actually made such provision for the boys in our areas, particularly when power supply was not available for a long time. We were of the opinion that instead of roaming the streets, particularly during the weekends, when the British Premier League football matches are going on, it is part of our social responsibility to provide such amenities. But the intention is never to encourage such criminal activities,” argued a local government official who also claimed they bought generators for the groups and made weekly provision for fuel.
‘They are on the street drinking, smoking’
In spite of the claims made in defence of the existence of such joints, Mrs Rebecca Agboola, a widow and landlady on Akinola Street, in the Aboru area of Agbado Oke Odo Local Council Development Area, viewed the development as ‘undesirable’.
“For me, it is a way of encouraging indolence. They are on this street too, sitting idly all day, drinking and smoking. They are always at a junction there. Although I would not know whether they discuss criminal activities there, their presence is doing more harm than good to the community and even the economy of the state. For instance, there was this rainy morning when they would not allow an Iyana Ipaja-bound bus to pick passengers from that junction just because the driver was unknown to them. They were hell-bent on collecting money from him. Not even the sight of many drenched passengers at the bus stop would dissuade them from their stance. The driver eventually left. It took some time before we got a vehicle that moved us from there. I was so incensed that I had to formally lodge a complaint with the community’s exco,” she stated.
But Akeem who also frequents one of such joints at Aboru described the claim that such places are used for criminal activities as calling a dog a bad name so as to hang it.
“I go there to relax and interact with my friends in the community, especially at this period when power supply is erratic. Sometimes, matters of common interest are discussed. As much as I know of these places, the allegations can’t be true of every base in Lagos,” Akeem, a commercial bus driver, argued.
In a reaction to the development, the chairman of Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit (Task Force), Superintendent Saheed Egbeyemi, told Saturday Tribune that such gatherings are permitted by law on the condition that they are not used to infringe on other people’s rights, plan or commit crime.
“If it is discovered that people use such recreation points to plan and commit crime, we move in, rid the area of such joints and put our men there for some time,” he stated.
He, however, appealed to members of the public to always report suspicious activities to relevant authorities.
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