Residents of Itire community in Surulere Local Government Area of Lagos State have raised the alarm to the menace of street urchins, popularly called “Area Boys.”
They also called on the Nigeria Police to step up surveillance in the area to check the activities of the boys that have begun to affect socio-economic life of the residents.
According to those who spoke with BusinessDay on the heightening insecurity in the area, people now live in fear as the boys move from street to street, attacking innocent people and smashing windscreen and mirrors of parked vehicles.
Recounting her ugly experience on Thursday, July 15, 2021, a lady who lives in Itire but works in Ikeja said she left her office for home, but was held up in traffic.
“By 8pm I was still at Maryland. My parents were concerned and asked me to go straight to Aguda and check in to any available hotel,” the lady, who is in her late 20s, said on condition of anonymity.
According to her, “I was about to part with N25,000 (Twenty five thousand naira) for a night charge at one of the hotels, when my Dad called that I should instead pick an Uber to a family friend’s house somewhere in Ojuelegba. I did just that.
“You can imagine the trauma my parents go through every day I go to work and stay beyond 7.30pm.”
She further explained that the situation is deteriorating by the day, lamenting that the hoodlums operate as if they were beyond the law of the land.
“If you see these boys, they operate without fear of anybody. They are known in the neighbourhood, but the question is who will challenge them? The police have been notified and they only show up after the boys must have wreaked havoc and dispersed,” she said.
According to her, “My parents’ concern for my safety grew after the boys attacked a man on our street a few days ago. He was coming back home around 8pm on that fateful day when the boys attacked him. They used their dagger to tear his trousers from the pocket down, on both sides, leaving him nearly naked. They robbed him of his phone and money.”
Others who spoke with our correspondent lamented and alleged that the police appeared complicit as no arrests have been made despite the open destruction of property being perpetrated by the “area boys.”
“This started like a play. We woke up one day to see that all the cars parked on our street had been vandalised- all the glasses broken. We reported at the police station that is a stone’s throw from the street, they pointedly told us to erect street gate,” a man whose car was damaged told BusinessDay.
According to him, “No day passes without attack on innocent people. All the streets in Itire- Adedeji, Adeniyi, Ola, Twins, Adeola, Oduselu, Semi-Saromi, Onitire, Olayinka, just to mention a few- have been taken over by bad boys. Adedeji bus stop on the popular Ijesha Road has always been a boiling point. Cult groups always clash there with dangerous weapons. The Palace is two streets away from a police station.”
An anonymous caller just got across to our correspondent while this story was being written to report that some people were being robbed around this afternoon (Monday, July 19, 2021), adding that “broken bottles are littered everywhere” on Shofolahun Street.
