We’re at their mercy – Residents
By Lawrence Enyoghasu
Isheri North community, a sleepy town located at the boundary of Lagos and Ogun states, is on fire. Formerly regarded as a ‘hideaway’ community by Lagosians, who want to avoid the bustle of the high-density Lagos metropolis, the neighbourhood has attracted attention of daredevil kidnappers and in the past two years has recorded an unusual prevalence and a new order whereby residents and homeowners have become cash-cow targets for kidnappers.
The abduction in that corridor on Lagos-Ibadan expressway, has brewed palpable fear that if the scourge goes unchecked, the once fast-developing community still wooing real estate investors and residents, will suffer a setback.
The community, comprising group of estates––Harmony, River View, Oshurun, Isheri GRA and Sheriff View, located on Catapillar road––once touted as ‘a place of rest and perfect security’ has become hunting grounds for kidnappers, who after turning the area into a goldmine, are not ready to relax their stranglehold.
Recently, a heavily armed 11-man gang abducted Dayo Adekoya, the secretary of the Isheri GRA estate. The kidnappers who stormed the estate at 10 pm on Wednesday, February 1, 2017, sporadically shot into the air for almost four hours before forcibly taking their victim away at 1 am, killing three of the estate’s security personnel who tried to prevent them.
Few weeks earlier, there was kidnapping at the Turkish International School when gunmen abducted five students and two staff, including a Turkish and held them hostage for two weeks until they were paid a princely ransom. In 2015, three landlords were whisked away while out on a Saturday morning keep-fit exercise. The story of kidnapping in Isheri is chilling.
The audacity with which the abductors struck not only overwhelms residents with fear; it has pushed some of them to entertain second thoughts about their continuing stay in the neighbourhood.
A resident, who identified himself as Gabriel said he is also considering packing out. He affirmed that since the first day kidnappers struck in the community, some of the landlords “have sent their children away to boarding schools and have taken precaution to only spend their weekends here.”
The last straw was the latest abduction, an episode as frightening as to convince some of the homeowners to move their families. It is no longer news in the neighbourhood that many landlords have abandoned their homes for fear of being kidnapped.
The menace is as gripping as to condition landlords in Isheri who can’t abandon their property to move around incognito, some of whom readily flare at being addressed as “landlord” in the open.
Iya Saida, an indigene, confirmed the gradual exit taking root in the community.
“There is a friend of mine who told me that she was going to pack out. For a while now, I have not seen her and I think she has made up her mind. She lives close to Kara bus stop. The increasing rate of kidnapping is frightening, but because we own the community, if we disappear who will tell visitors to stay and run their business?”
Her statement infers that entrepreneurs and business owners in the community are also bearing the brunt. Chinedu Oke, who sells plastic water tanks, is a good example. When the Imo State indigene spoke to Saturday Sun, what came from him was a ballad of complaints of how the menace has indirectly crippled his business. Oke said he had been sitting idly in his shop all day, without a single customer.
“This thing is a problem. When I started this business, it was booming, but now it is not, the rate at which people are building here has reduced. They are not building because the area is becoming insecure.
Most of the people here now are landlords and indigenes. Hardly would you see someone working in Lagos who would now think of renting a room around here,” Oke said.
Another petty trader at Lekki Gardens said her business has been on the downturn because of a decrease in the number of customers, mostly contractors and manual labourers, who used to patronise her. Since kidnapping became the order of the day, the rate of construction of buildings has reduced, and the consequence is obvious.
“Before I used to make a lot from this spot, but right now I have to hawk to break even. I pray the government intervenes,” the 80-year-old woman lamented.
The scourge has also limited the social life of residents in what has become an axis of kidnapping. Saturday Sun gathered that most families do not allow their children to roam about and schools have banned their students from buying groceries outside their premises. An enquiry into the kind of precaution taken by the schools was met with an ‘off-limit’ rebuff. A source, however, assured that much have been put on ground for the security of their students.
“They have taken strict steps in safeguarding their students. They don’t allow public commuters to pick their students and they confirm their arrival everyday after schools,” the source stated.
What makes estates in the Isheri axis a constant target for kidnapping? The answer is in the terrain. Isheri, unfortunately, sits a swamp linking Mile 12 and the notorious kidnap zone of Ikorodu. About 90 per cent of the area is a swamp, a terrain that gives room for kidnappers to operate and escape with impunity using speedboats.
Developed areas of the community starts from the Isheri gate to GRA–– beyond that, there are only scanty new buildings.
The closest police station in the developed area is approximately10 minutes away. Shockingly, as much as the community needs the presence of the law, some of its members think police presence is bad news. They think having police around will fester vices and deface the estate. One of the things police will bring to the area is packing impounded cars everywhere, one woman said.
“The police is needed in the estate, but you should consider other things about police. This is an estate; if you bring the police now you will bring other things and it will turn to another problem,” she said.
Olakunju, a member of Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) vigilante in the community bemoaned their helplessness at combating the menace.
“It is not only one route that leads to the community. There are about four roads leading to the community. What makes it very dangerous is that the community is surrounded by water and those bad boys know all the roads into the community more than the owners of the houses, and even more than the OPC. They have an area they stay in. It is called Abule Ijo. We were unaware of this until after the last incident,” he said.
He advocated a pragmatic approach to the problem: “We need government assistance to build a police station in the community. The government should also provide vans and motorcycles for the policemen so that they can patrol the environment and search every nook and cranny. Police should also work with the residents because they know those bad people in the community and they know the environment.”
Saturday Sun contacted Lagos and Ogun states police commands, but no response was forthcoming from them. However, the previous press briefings by their CPs said they were doing their best to return normalcy in the community.