Police arrests cultists who sets timber market ablaze

A combined team of policemen from the State Criminal Investigation Department, CID, Panti, Yaba, policemen from the Denton Police Station, Ebute-Metta, and policemen from the Area C police Command have raided Criminal hideouts at the Ebute Metta area of Lagos following attacks on the Okobaba Sawmill market and cult related killings in the area.

It was gathered that the police acted on a petition by the Mainland Sawmillers Association to the Lagos State Commissioner of police, Mr. Fatia Owoseyin, alleging attack on their members by miscreants popularly call Area boys.

The insecurity in the market degenerated to heavy shootings when the urchins allegedly attempted to set the market ablaze but were prevented by the vigilance group, guarding the market.

The Saw millers said the Area boys numbering about fifty stormed the Sawmill market on July 20 and 21st threatening the lives of members and vigilantes employed to protect the market.

It was learnt that the area boys led by one Ogolo, a suspect on police wanted list, opened fire at the vigilante, shooting one of them.

A police source stated that the raid also follows the killing of six persons in the area by rival cult gangs in the last one week.

When our correspondent visited the Saw mill market, members said they have been recording low patronage and members are staying away from their shops over fear of attack.

Narrating what happened, a saw miller who did not want his name published said, “The area boys stormed the market on July 20th and they attacked the vigilante guarding the market. They abducted one of the vigilante and they beat the man up mercilessly and shot him. They broke his leg and left him thinking he was dead but he was rescued by other vigilante who had mobilized their members to the scene. The Area boys were chased away and prevented from setting the market on fire.

However, we were shocked when the area boys mobilized themselves from all over Lagos State and they stormed the Saw Mill on July 21st. We were going about our business when we saw them with cutlasses, guns and other dangerous weapons. They chased us out of our shops and they said they were looking for our executives and the vigilante members. We had to run for our dear lives. The police later came and chased them away. We have been living in fear because of these Area Boys. They have threatened to come back. These area boys are responsible for the theft of our machines and cables and other valuables. The area boys also use our market for the initiation of their cult members. We need government protection urgently,” the source said.

Saturday Mirror learnt that following the incident, suspected area boys in a show of supremacy stormed, Kano, Jebba, Freeman and Borno Streets in the area and stabbed three persons to death to retaliate the killing of their members.

Following the incessant attacks, the Lagos Mainland Sawmillers Association sent an SOS to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, urging the police boss to come to their rescue .

Signed by the president of the association, Alhaji G. Onikeku, they appealed to the police authority and the Department of State Security, DSS, to arrest those behind the killing and destruction of property at the Sawmill .

The petition also urged the Lagos State government to relocate the Saw mill market to Ikosi, following a memorandum of understanding, MOU, signed between the government and the saw millers eight years ago.

Agbodemu Musbau, secretary, Mainland Vigilantee Group of Nigeria, decried the incessant attacks on innocent residents and security operatives, as he called on the federal government to stamp out cultism in the country. “The Saw millers employed the vigilante Group of Nigeria Mainland branch to protect their machines and other valuables from thieves and other hoodlums who want to use the place as a criminal hide out but these area boys are cultists who have been operating with impunity. We are collaborating with the police to ensure that we protect lives and property, but our members are also being targeted by these cultists. We are appealing to government to see cultism as a crime worse than Boko Haram and a crime that needs urgent attention, especially in the South Western part of the country.

“Cultists have become a menace to the society and government must address it like they are addressing Boko Haram before it consumes us in this part of the country. We hail President Buhari for the security moves he had made to address Boko Haram, but he should not stop in the north, he should bring the fight against insecurity to the Western part of the country because failure to halt cultism will breed criminals worse than Boko Haram”.

The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Patricia Amadin, while reacting to the killings at Ebute Metta, said the police will continue to work hard to raid the state of criminals.