Alarm over wave of gangsterism [The Guardian]

By The Editorial Board

The rising wave of gangsterism is frightening and it would seem a season of anomie has descended upon some parts of the country. Virtually on daily basis, criminal gangs and cult groups armed with automatic rifles, knives, bottles and other dangerous weapons engage in savage fight and unleash mayhem on the citizenry. Innocent people are killed, many are injured while properties are destroyed. Rivers, Lagos, Oyo and Bayelsa top the list of states worst hit by this menace which has compounded the already precarious security situation in the country. This is unacceptable and police authorities should rise to the challenge to save innocent citizens from untold barbarism.

Only yesterday, six persons were killed when hoodlums clashed in Oja’ba area of Ibadan, Oyo State’s capital. Two gangs; namely, ‘Idowu Boys’ and ‘Zaccheus Boys’ were engaged in a war with other gangs leaving blood and death in its trail.

Three persons were feared killed in the Oworonsoki area of Lagos State as two rival cult groups clashed at a Valentine’s Day party, the other day. Many were injured, shops and vehicles were vandalised and property and cash looted. The palace of the Oworonsoki monarch was attacked, while everyone in the palace was threatened with guns. For days, the area was impossible to access as fighting raged even overnight.

According to reports, a man who belonged to one gang had been killed earlier in the day by a rival cult group. His death infuriated his gang members, who gathered before mid-night and stormed four streets in the area, attacking even innocent people with bottles, cutlasses and guns. After the mayhem, two more people were dead. It took the intervention of three detachments of the police, including the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), to restore peace in the area.

While that was going on, another set of thugs invaded Orile-Agege General Hospital in Lagos, attacking staff and patients with cutlasses, knives and other lethal weapons. A father who brought his daughter to the hospital, and had nothing to do with the gangs, was stabbed. The hoodlums who also attacked other people in the hospital, carted away money, equipment and patients’ mobile telephone sets.

Reports had it that a gangster had been rushed to the hospital after a fight and was being attended to by doctors when members of a rival gang stormed the hospital, unhappy that the doctors wanted to save the life of an enemy.

A cult war is currently taking place in Rivers State, where rival gangs are up in arms against one another in brutal fights. The latest incident was the gruesome murder of 15 innocent persons in Omoku and its surrounding communities, which has forced the State Governor, Nyesom Wike, to ban commercial motorcyclists in four councils.

The affected councils – Abua/Adual, Ahoada East, Ahoada West and Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni (ONELGA) – have, in recent times, been embroiled in gang killings, which have forced many residents to flee. The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), the other day, also condemned the vicious murder of six persons following renewed hostilities between Nwebiara and Barako communities in Gokana Local Government Council of the state.

Meanwhile, members of another gang are believed to have kidnapped the mother of the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Dr. Austin Tam-George. The victim, Mrs. Patience Tam-George, 85, was kidnapped last Saturday at her family home in Giogioma, Okirika, immediately she returned from church.

The catalogue of gang killings and attacks is unending and this is condemnable.

No doubt, the prevailing dire economic situation is breeding so much discontent and criminality on the part of so many unemployed youngsters with many being prone to violence. But Nigeria must not allow this culture to take root. Government certainly needs to strengthen the social and economic structures of the country to absorb people who are willing to engage in productive work and make life liveable for all.

Criminality, never justifiable under any circumstance, must be stamped out and a situation in which innocent people are no longer safe in their homes cannot be allowed as this undermines the essence of a community or state. Law enforcement agents must be equipped to deal with this state of criminality and all citizens must join hands with them by providing useful information.

Above all, the police needs to be strengthened through its complete decentralisation in line with the tenets of a truly federal state and with appropriate motivation to deal with sundry security challenges in every corner of the country.

- The Guardian