Posted by By Emma Nnadozie on
NO fewer than fifty street urchins popularly called Area Boys were yesterday arrested by the Police in Lagos State following a directive from the Acting Commissioner of Police, Mr. John Haruna for a clampdown on them.
LAGOS - NO fewer than fifty street urchins popularly called Area Boys were yesterday arrested by the Police in Lagos State following a directive from the Acting Commissioner of Police, Mr. John Haruna for a clampdown on them.
The exercise which paralyzed business activities in the Island reportedly recorded some casualties but the Police said no casualty was recorded.
The onslaught against the street urchins which was concentrated mainly on the Lagos Island made up of Victoria Island, Ikoyi, Aja, Ebute-Ero, Idumota, VGC, Isale-Eko etc followed an upsurge in the nefarious activities of the Area Boys over the weekend in Lagos Island. Sources said trouble started early morning Saturday after suspected supporters of Alliance for Democracy (AD) clashed with those of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on the Island resulting massive destruction of property, looting and rape were recorded.
Vanguard learnt that many houses belonging to relations of one of the top leaders of the ruling PDP were destroyed and looted by the street urchins.
The PDP chieftain quickly lodged a report of threat to his life with the police prompting the clampdown on the Area Boys.
In a directive reminiscent of a riot act, the Acting police boss ordered both the Deputy Commissioner of Police in-charge of the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID), Panti, Yaba, the Area Commander Lion building, Commanders of Mobile Police 2, 20 and 22, the Officer-in-charge of Criminal Investigations Bureau, the Monitoring Unit and the Federal Highway Patrol to, with immediate effect, cordon -off the whole of Lagos Island, identify and arrest all suspected Area Boys and charge them to court.
The directive noted that the upsurge in the nefarious activities of Area Boys led to the invasion of many shops and the looting of valuable goods in the Island, a development which it noted has drawn concern from notable citizens, captains of industries, bankers etc.