• That’s sheer blackmail – Taskforce
The Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) has accused the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Enforcement Agency (Taskforce) of harassing northerners working in the state, describing the situation as “totally unacceptable”.
The AYCF National President, Alhaji Yerima Shettima, in a statement issued on Monday, accused the task force of invading even residential areas at odd hours to harass and arrest northerners.
Demanding an explanation from the Lagos State government, the group called on President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently intervene to “forestall any likely consequence of extreme provocation.”
The statement partly read, “Our attention has been drawn to an ongoing brigandage in Lagos against innocent Northerners who are in Lagos to earn their living legitimately. We reliably gathered that, using a gestapo style, the Lagos Taskforce officials have been invading homes of Northerners in Lagos in ungodly hours of the night and carting away motorcycles, while forcefully abducting the occupants and hauling them into detention.
“It was very touching when we saw the Taskforce officials raiding homes with majority of northerners in Oshodi area on the wee hours of the night.”
The AYCF demanded that either the Lagos State government or the Taskforce explain the legal and constitutional basis for the action.
The AYFC said it had gathered that the people in many northern states were already disturbed by the news filtering out of Lagos on the development.
“And we dare say this kind of tension in the North has very often been a precursor to revenge attacks. Most importantly, we call for the immediate release from prison of all the innocent Northerners whose homes were raided in the ungodly hour by Taskforce officials,” the Forum said.
Some Northern commercial motorcyclists in Agege told Eko Trust that the task force had impounded over 5000 motorcycles belonging to northern youths in the last six months.
One of them, Ibrahim Rabiu, who claimed Taskforce operatives took away his motorcycle from him two weeks ago at Ikeja, believed the action was targeted at impoverishing he and his colleagues from the North.
Rabiu wondered why the Taskforce would “always harass motorcyclists, especially those from the North”, since they pay their dues to transport unions and also buy ticket from local government officials.
“After paying all these fees, the Taskforce will still turn around to forcefully collect our bikes from us. If they know that commercial motorcycle operation is banned in the state, they should tell local government officials and the union to stop collecting money from us,” he added.
Another rider, who identified himself as Abdul Saidu, expressed his support for the AYCF statement, insisting that the activities of the Taskforce were “a flagrant abuse of power.”
Saidu said, “Some of them extort money from us. They collect as much as N50,000 to release one motorcycle. Go to the Taskforce premises in the evening, the area will be like a market. Petty traders, okada riders, peasants, etc., are treated like criminals,” he said.
However, the Taskforce’s actions had support from an Assistant News Editor with the Sun newspapers, Christopher Oji, who opined that a good number of commercial motorcyclists in Lagos are foreigners who do not have respect for traffic laws and other road users.
Oji argued that Nigeriens and Chadians have taken over the business of commercial motorcycle operation, especially in Lagos.
“The riders should be educated because they pounce on anyone at the slightest provocation, destroying vehicles and at times rough-handling anyone they have any small infraction with,” he added.
The Public Relations Officer of the Taskforce, Taofeek Adebayo, told Eko Trust that the matter was being handled by the state government and the Ministry of Information would soon comment on it.
Adebayo, however, described the AYCF statement as “blackmail”.
He said that operatives of the Taskforce did recently raid a house at Oshodi where some miscreants were arrested while smoking Indian hemp.
The PRO said that the raid followed an attack on the agency’s officials by commercial motorcyclists, who had fled after injuring two Taskforce officials.
“About 48 persons were arrested. They were profiled, and after the profiling, the innocent ones among them were allowed to go, while the perpetrators were charged to court,” he added.
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