By; Raymond Tedunjaye, Lagos.
Residents of Badia East community in Apapa – Iganmu Council Area of Lagos, have applauded Police operatives for dislodging criminal hideouts in the area, where 80 hoodlums were apprehended in a mid- night raid.
Nine unregistered motorcycles, suspected to have been stolen and converted to use for various criminal activities by the bandits, were said to have been recovered from them during the exercise last Thursday.
Led by the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) Badia Division, Kayode Ayeni, a combined Police operatives drawn from the division, Mobile unit, Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS), Anti Terrorists Squad, Taskforce, Criminal Intelligence Bureau, B’ Ops Dept, Area Bravo had local vigilantes, stormed the criminal hideouts located behind Oke Ilueri community, white-sand and Bola Ahmed Tinubu Tankers Parking Terminal on the National Art Theatre axis of Lagos-Badagry expressway, where the bandits were nabbed.
Armed to the teeth, the cops stormed the area at about 11.00pm and operated till 6.00am the following day, when some of the bandits were either preparing or returning from scene of criminal acts.
The operation, as gathered, was consequent upon complaints by victims who had been dispossessed of valuables by the hoodlums, especially under the Iganmu over head bridge, vicinity of the National Art Theatre and Ijora- Apapa road, which prompted the DPO to write the State Police Commissioner for a massive raid.
Alleged to have also been responsible for the various attack on motorists at the National Art Theatre axis of the Lagos Badagry Expressway, the hoodlums were said to have found the area as a comfort zone due to its been a shanty and slum.
Upon the completion of the exercise, the bandits were immediately conveyed in the black-maria vehicles provided by the Taskforce, to Alausa, arraigned before the mobile court and reminded.
The DPO, Kayode Ayeni, a Superintendent, who confirmed the raid exercise, said the exercise is continuous, as he was determined to raid the area of criminal activities and make it crime free.
While commending the police operatives, the residents who spoke through the chairman of the Community Residents Association (CDA), Pastor Raymond Tedunjaye, at a stakeholders meeting yesterday, noted that the community has been experiencing calmness since the arrest of the bandits.
Tedunjaye said that the activities of the hoodlums have constituted a nightmare to residents and passersby, adding that it had made the area to be tagged “bad area”.
He also disclosed that two notorious armed robbers had earlier been arrested in the area by operatives of the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS), with arms and ammunition recovered from them.
The Badia East CDA chairman commended the professional manner in which the exercise was handled.
