Kuwait is
a popular and notorious place at Gowon Estate in Iyana-Ipaja, Lagos, south-west
Nigeria. In the past, residents of the estate say, the place was bushy,
water-logged, a no-go area and a meeting point for all sorts of smokers and
drug addicts.
“Rapists,
drug addicts, area boys, suspected robbers, ritualists and persons of
questionable characters used to meet at the place to smoke igbo (Indian hemp) or
sniff cracks, as cocaine or heroin is popularly called”, a resident, who spoke
off record, said.
But,
Edwin Michael, a resident of the estate said , “about 30 years ago, these
persons of questionable characters, after smoking Indian hemp or sniffing
cocaine or heroin could harass, rape, intimidate or beat-up some residents or
passers-by at the estate, who dare to pass through Kuwait, even during the
day.”
The
Police have raided Kuwait in the past, where a number of suspected criminals
were arrested, their cases investigated and eventually charged to court, where
quite a member of them ended-up in jail, a police officer at Gowon Estate
Police Station said.
Kenneth
Nwosu, Lagos police image maker says police officers from Gowon Estate in
Iyana-Ipaja have a firm grip on security situations in the entire estate.
Mike Adjara, Secretary of
Gowon Estate Sports Association once told our correspondent that operatives of
the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) used to carry out intermittent
raid on Kuwait in the past.
Adjara said that sanity has been brought to
the place by the combined efforts of the police, NDLEA and other security
agents and Kuwait area is now safe for passers-by and residents, both during
the day and night.
However,
a visit by our correspondent on a surveillance mission to Kuwait last week
showed that the place has changed radically. The bushy, water-logged and
notorious mantra associated with Kuwait some 30 years ago, has given way for a
new, improved place.
In the
place are some pentecostal churches, recreational facilities, shops, mosques,
schools and hospitals built at the place.
Prophet
(Dr) Patrick Blessing Joshua, Senior Pastor of Chapel of Possibility Church,
located at 4th Avenue, Gowon Estate, Lagos said the battle to build
his church in Kuwait was not an easy one.
According
to him, “when I arrived Kuwait in 1985 with some pastors, we were being
harassed and intimidated by some smokers and drug addicts we were preaching to,
trying to convert them to Christ”.
He said
that at a point, two pastors fled the place when the smokers were using the
Bible they snatched from us to wrap their indian hemp and threatening to deal
with us, if we dare complain.
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