PHOTOS: SYLVESTER OKORUWA.
Badoo barrage
Effective from 2016, there were reports about gruesome killings of entire families in the Ikorodu axis of Lagos. In the early months of 2017, it was already established that there was a bloodthirsty cult group in the area called Badoo and that the vicious murders were carried out by members of the group. It was later concluded that the Badoo cult members were killing people for ritual purposes. Among the victims were a 62-year-old widow identified only as Mrs Ogunleye and her two children, Seun and Funlola; a couple, Mr Lucky Ebhodaghe and Mrs Margaret Ebhodaghe and their son, Jonathan; a pregnant woman, Rukayat Olusanya, her husband, Israel Olusanya, Wale Olusanya and six-year-old Semilore Olusanya; a woman, Beatrice Alaba and her son, David, at Temu village, in the Agbowa area of the state, among others.
Ikorodu residents resorted to self-defence when it seemed that police weren’t doing enough to end the siege. The sorry end of the self-defence was the ‘jungle justice’ meted out to suspected Badoo cultists. Persons presumed to be innocent, including a budding comedian, were killed.
Since the base of the cult group was busted by the police with a popular oil magnate and a prince identified as the brains behind the group, the community has been enjoying relative peace.
The Badoo barrage was one Lagos won’t forget in a hurry and the outgoing year could be rightly called the era of the cult’s rising and, hopefully, a crashing falling.
Igbonla kidnapping
For 64 days, beginning from May 25, 2017, six students of Igbonla Model School, Epe, Lagos, were held by kidnappers who demanded millions of Naira as ransom. After the payment of tens of millions of Naira, the students were released in the Ajakpa community of Ese-Odo Local Government Area of Ondo State on July 28, 2017.
Several months later, on November 28, the militants who kidnapped the students were reported to be among some youths who surrendered their arms to embrace the amnesty programme of the Ondo State government.
For these youngsters, their traumatised parents, pressured government, the combined armed forces involved in the negotiated release as well as the local vigilante members who partnered the security agencies, 2017 is a year they are not likely to forget in a hurry.
Militant killings
In the outgoing year, militants alleged to be of Ijaw origin turned Lagos to a killing field, leading to ethnic tension between the Ijaw and the Yoruba. The apathy initially shown to the killings by security agencies got various Yoruba cultural organisations like Afenifere blowing hot. The Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) stepped in and confronted the said militants. The waterside, waterways and swamps used as their operational base are quieter now, but the families of those killed or kidnapped by the militants won’t forget 2017 anytime soon.
Evans fanfare
It is perhaps the biggest Lagos story of the year. In May, the police announced placing a bounty of N30 million on an alleged kidnapping kingpin, Evans, real name, Chukwudubem Onwuamadike. He was eventually dramatically arrested in his hideout mansion in Magodo and has since remained in the headline with his trial now ongoing. The 36-year-old, who dropped out of school at Junior Secondary School 2, confessed to various crimes, including collecting $1 million ransom from the family of one of his victims. There was jubilation even within the police circle when the man was arrested. That was how ‘big’ Evans was in 2017. He is surely going to hug the headlines no less in 2018.
Heart-breaking murder story
A bank worker, Olaoluwa Adejo, was arrested by the Lagos State police command for the death of his 28-year-old wife, Maureen, at their home on Peluola Street, Oworonshoki, Bariga. The 32-year-old Lagos indigene was alleged to have tortured his wife of five years with a belt and cut her with a machete. Their five-year-old son, Richard, in whose presence the incident reportedly happened, told the media that his father also forced a local insecticide, otapiapia, down the throat of his mother. “I am Richard Adejo. I am five years old. My daddy beat my mummy with a belt; macheted her here (shows arms), macheted her here (shows legs). He used the belt on her here (points at face); forced my mummy to drink otapiapia (insecticide). My daddy took my mummy away,” he said.
Queens’ College deaths
In an investigation into the deaths of three students of Queens’ College-Vivian Osuinyi, Bithia Itulua and Praise Sodipo – between February and March – a history of rot, negligence, corruption and regulation was unearthed about the management of the school.
The victims were being rushed to the Lagos Sate University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, following the epidemic at the school arising from the contamination of the school’s water sources.
Tests conducted on them indicated that they had gastrointestinal perforation. Also known as ruptured bowel, this is a hole in the wall of any part of the gastrointestinal tract which includes the oesophagus, stomach, small intestines and large intestines which causes the contents to leak into the abdomen. Their intestines had become perforated as a result of typhoid occasioned mostly by the consumption of contaminated water and foods, according to the doctors who treated them.
Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of the doctors and nurses to ensure that they fully recovered, they died. The saga had some casualties, including the principal, who was quickly moved out of the once prestigious school.
#EndSars campaign
There was uproar on the social media after some operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Lagos State command, allegedly shot a youth in the Yaba area of the state. The criticism followed a viral video which showed an angry mob chasing a black bus used by the operatives.
A Twitter user, Charley, had posted about the shooting on his handle @yabakid, but did not indicate the exact location in Yaba or the identity of the victim. He wrote, “A SARS officer just shot a boy in the head right in front of me. WTF! I’m so shocked!”
He said the incident happened in Yaba on a Thursday right in his neighbourhood, adding that the SARS operatives stole the phone of a Yahoo boy and shot another boy in the arm, and consequently the youth in the area mobilised and gave them a chase. The crisis snowballed into a national campaign against the force. The campaign forced changes in their operational style. The campaign was a high-point of citizen participation and advocacy in 2017.
Fake Oba arrested
A 27-year-old man, Salami Oluwatobi Peter, who impersonated the Oba of Lagos, was arraigned by the police from Lagos State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID) Panti-Yaba, over an alleged N15 million fraud. The police accused the fake traditional ruler and others at large of conspiring among themselves to fraudulently obtain the sum from one Moriselade Ajoke under the pretext of assisting her to procure a slot in the proposed Lekki Free Airport Investment.
Disputed LG poll, disputed offices
On July 22, Lagos State held its much talked-about Local Governments (LG) and Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) elections. As expected, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) swept the elections.
Immediately the 57 chairmen took office, trouble started. Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, perhaps in a bid to exert his political will in the state, opted to impose his own secretaries on the local governments and supervisory councillors on the newly sworn-in chairmen. This move did not go down well with a number of them, leading to what appeared to be moments of topsy-turvy in the state’s politics. It took the intervention of a former governor of the state, Senator Bola Tinubu, to resolve what could have been a prolonged impasse. In the end, the real power broker prevailed.
Kidnappers’ dens uncovered
Another incident that shocked Lagos residents was the discovery of two kidnappers’ dens in two unlikely places in Lagos.
Ordinarily, dens used by evildoers would be far from busy areas. It is not uncommon for kidnappers/cultists’ dens to be found in forests, abandoned buildings or infrequently visited sites. But when a kidnappers/ritualists’ den is located along one of the busiest expressways in the state, perhaps residents would be forgiven if they become overly worried. This was exactly what happened when two kidnappers’ dens were discovered at the Obadeyi-Ajala area of Ijaiye and the Ile Zik area both on the ever busy Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway.
What made both discoveries exceptional was the fact that both dens were situated in drainages. A street cleaner was said to have discovered the den at Obadeyi-Ajala when she heard a cry for help from inside the drains close by.
Suicides in lagoon
Suicide under any guise and in any location is never a good thing. And killing oneself by jumping off a busy bridge in broad daylight into the lagoon is bound to become the talk of the town.
In March, one Dr Allwell Orji, stopped his driver in the middle of a journey on the Third Mainland Bridge and right in the presence of other bridge users, climbed to the bridge railings and jumped into the lagoon below. Many possible reasons were adduced but the most popular was linking the man’s action to an alleged diabolical call he received moments before the jump. His suicide opened a floodgate with all unsuccessful until October when a one Oluseyi Adekunle jumped to his death in the lagoon from the Lekki-Ikoyi end of the bridge.
Lagos @50
Lagos in 2017 isn’t all about sad news. The city celebrated 50 years of existence, though not without the omo onile, omo ilu (indigenity) controversy trailing the chairmanship of the planning committee. But the state celebrated and the shout of happy excitement reverberated all over the land.
and then