Operatives of Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Agency (Task Force) early Friday arrested a total of 123 people, mainly young men, loaded in a trailer where also a total of 48 motorcycles popularly called Okada were discovered.
The affected people, who were paraded at the headquarters of the Task Force, by the chairman of the agency, Mr Yinka Egbeyemi, were all from Jigawa State.
Addressing newsmen, Egbeyemi said the affected people, out of who were 48 Okada operators, were nabbed by men of the agency at Agege, having been trailed from Toll Gate as they travelled in a trailer with registration no: Jigawa HJA-680XA.
Egbeyemi, however, said it was at the time the arrest was made that he equally received a call from the State Commissioner for the Environment, Dr Tunji Bello, that information had it that about 300 terrorists were said to have entered Lagos.
The Task Force boss, who said he confirmed the arrest of 123 people to the commissioner, noted that all the affected people were from Jigawa, with 48 of them coming into Lagos with their Okadas, all in search of greener pastures.
“They brought the people to the office and they have been able to interrogate some of them and they said they are coming from Jigawa State, 48 of them are the owners of the 48 bikes while the remaining of them said they came into Lagos looking for greener pasture,” Egbeyemi said.
He, however, said that all the affected people were thoroughly searched, with no incriminating thing found on them, adding: “So far, nothing incriminating has being found on them apart from the 48 bikes they came in with.”
Speaking further, Egbeyemi said the State Commissioner of Police, Zubair Muazu, had been informed of the development and had, therefore, promised to set up a panel that would profile all the arrested people.
He said following such word from the police boss, “the people will be transferred to State Command where they will be profiled individually.”
The Task Force boss, while noting that Lagos was free for anybody to come, however, counselled that there was no point for anybody that had no business to do in the state to come in, else he or she would be apprehended.
This was just as assured that Lagos was well secured, saying that there was surveillance with operatives monitoring everything going on around the state.
One of the affected people, Shuaibu Haruna, while speaking with newsmen, said he left Jigawa State to come and work in Lagos with his motorcycle, claiming to have a wife and a son but had no source of income in Jigawa, hence his reason for coming into Lagos.
Haruna, who disclosed that he paid a sum of N7000 as transport fare which covers himself and his bike, said he intended to stay in Daleko in Isolo area of the state.
Mohammed Ibrahim, who was also among those that were nabbed, said he also left Jigawa State on Tuesday to operate Okada business in Lagos.
He claimed to have finished his farmwork, saying he came into Lagos with the intention to find something to do.
According to him, he had chosen to head for Badagry to meet his senior brother, saying he paid the sum of N2000 as transport fare to get to Lagos.
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