Lagos police places traders on watchlist over Boko Haram

By Emmanuel Udom

With the joint military task force officers pounding Boko Haram members in their hundreds around terrorism torn states of Bornu, Yobe and Adamawa, the police in Lagos is not prepared to be caught off guard.

Observations by our correspondent around some markets in Lagos revealed that Hausa traders, conveying their goods from states in northern parts of the country to Lagos are under close watch by undercover police detectives.

At the popular Kotangowa market, located at Oke Odo, in Lagos, for instance, our correspondent counted 25 trailers, fully loaded with tomatoes and onions that arrived the market on Friday from some northern states.

Some of the trailers marked: Kano DTF 265 XA, Jigawa XA 576 RGN, Gombe YHB 17 XA, Bauchi KTG 559 XA, Kano KST 163 MX, Katsina XA 254 BAT, Kaduna MKA 960 XA and Katsina XA 254 BAT, parked along Old Ota road and Pipeline road in Oke Odo, were observed off loading their goods.

However, five police detectives from Oke Odo police station in Agbado-Oke local government council were spotted by our correspondent watching the off loading processes opposite the market.

Some of the detectives hid inside commercial buses and keke marwa loading passengers from Ile-epo bus-stop to command areas, even as they could disembark from the buses and keke marwa as soon as the passengers are completed and enter another empty one.

A senior police officer at the station said that Monday Agbonikan, the divisional police officer of the station has given officers a matching order to ensure that no terrorists or criminals, disguising as traders are allowed to wreck havoc in the market.

According to our source, detectives will continue to keep a closer watch on the tomatoes and onions traders, off loading their goods in the next one week.

But, Babatunde Lawal, a resident of Pipeline road in Oke Odo said that the trailers normally wait for about a week for some of their goods to be sold and money returned to them, before going back to their base Therefore, during this period, they do pay about N4000 to the local council as permit.

Speaking on the issue, Kenneth Nwosu, Lagos police image maker said that the security architecture put in place by the Lagos state police command under Kayode Aderanti as commissioner, is tight proof and the entire state is under 24 hour close watch.

According to Nwosu, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, from the Berger end of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, motorists and trailers entering Lagos are under close watch by the numerous closed circuit televisions installed at both ends of the expressway.

The Lagos State Police Command has been empowered to stop fleeing Boko Haram members from the north-eastern parts of the country entering the state, he said.