- The police in Lagos has released the 123 northern youths who were intercepted in a truck - The men were coming from Jigawa state when they were rounded up by the task force - The Lagos state police command say nothing incriminating was found on them
The Lagos state police command has released the 123 northern youths who were intercepted in a truck with 48 motorcycles by the State Environmental Sanitation and Special Offenses Task force.
The men were coming from Jigawa state when they were rounded up by the task force, as the video of their arrest went viral on social media. The command’s spokesman, DSP Bala Ikhana, who spoke with Daily Trust, said after profiling of the young men, nothing incriminating was found on them.
He said the suspicion and subsequent interception of the truck arose from the manner they came in, in large number packed in a truck, adding that most of them were living in Lagos and went homes for the Eid-l-kabir celebration.
On his part, the chairman of the task force, Mr. Yinka Egbeyemi, explained that the interception on Friday, August 30 was a proactive step to protect the state against any external attack.
His words: “While my team was on operation, we got information from the public that some people had entered into Lagos in trailer loaded with over 300 people. We swiftly responded to the alert and trailed the truck from Berger area to Agege. We eventually intercepted the truck which carried no few than 123 men and 48 motorcycles.
“We have interrogated most of the truck’s occupants; from the information we gathered, some of them said they were coming from Jigawa state, with 48 of them claiming to own seized motorcycles. The rest of them said they came to Lagos in search of greener pasture.”
Egbeyemi said 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.
Nigerians had taken to social media to express their views on the confiscation of the motorcycles and arrests of the riders from the north by the Lagos state government. A human rights activist, Professor Chidi Odinkalu, expressed displeasure over the arrest, wondering when being an okada rider from the north has suddenly become a crime.
A development expert, Oluseun Onigbinde, also expressed displeasure over the report of the arrest, describing it as illegal.
