Environmental Sanitation And Special Offences task force in Lagos state had intercepted a truck filled with 48 motorcycles and 123 “suspicious looking” men.
The men alledged that they are coming from Jigawa.
The chairman of the task force, Yinka Egbeyemi, stated that the truck was seized following a tip off by members of the public.
The members of the public raised security concern about the manner with which the truck occupants “conducted themselves”.
It is not yet clear that they were preparing to commit any crime. And this may lead to accusation of ethnic profiling, reported The Cable.
Yinka said however that after the interception, the truck and its occupants were moved to the task force office in Oshodi for interrogation.
Meanwhile, after the task force got a security alert from the public, Yinka said, they seized the truck and its occupants at Agege area of Lagos.
Hear him:
“While my team was on operation, we got information from the public that some people had entered into Lagos in a truck loaded with over 300 people.
We swiftly responded to the alert and trailed the truck from Berger area to Agege. However, we eventually intercepted the truck which carried no fewer than 123 men and 48 motorcycles. And undisclosed number of bicycles.
We have interrogated most of the truck’s occupants. From the information we gathered, some of them said they were coming from Jigawa State.
However, Yinka Egbeyemi further stated that the Lagos police command had directed that a fact-finding panel be constituted to profile the detained occupants of the truck.
But he added that nothing incriminating was found on them apart from the motorcycles.
Moreover, one of the detained occupants, Shuaibu Haruna, said he left Jigawa to work in Lagos with his motorcycle. He claimed to have a wife and a son, but said he needed to double his income to cater for his family.
Haruna said he intended to stay in Isolo area to which he had already paid N7,000 as accommodation fee.
Mohammed Ibrahim, another occupant, said he left his base in the north part of Nigeria to keep himself busy after finishing his farm work.
He said he was going to Badagry to join his brother.
Nevertheless, a good number of people have expressed fear on the mass exodus of the suspects.
Many people question why a crowd of able bodied men with same culture and interest will migrate to a particular region. Especially now that there are security issues in the country.
The public therefore, urged the necessary security bodies to investigate the matter thoroughly. And never to sweep it under the carpet.
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