The first sign of disquiet, which a first-time visitor may
encounter in the Ikorodu area as he approaches the Igbo-Olomu and Isawo
communities, is the ubiquitous presence of a dark green Lagos Task Force
vehicle stationed at a major turning.
During a visit to the area on Monday morning, our correspondent
observed that heavily armed military personnel had taken different positions on
the road, screening and frisking commuters.
There was an uneasy calm around the junction.
The silence contrasted sharply with the usual cacophony arising
from buying and selling in the area, as well as the sound of speeding
commercial motorcycles, popularly called okada.
Beyond the junction, the plains and valleys of Igbo Olomu and
Isawo, leading to the creeks separating the areas from Arepo in neighbouring
Ogun State, also swarmed with soldiers.
It was less than a week after the military started an offensive
against suspected pipeline vandals, who had terrorised residents on the
coastline, forcing many of them to flee with their families.
But the situation was still far from normal when our correspondent
visited some of the communities in the area on Monday.
Muti, Elepete, Kajola, Ola Imam and other communities on the flank
of Isawo and Igbo Olomu were already deserted.
Haunted by endless abductions, rape, armed robbery and deaths, the
residents had since abandoned their homes and fled these communities.
The few that defiantly chose to stay were seen on Monday nursing
the wounds inflicted on them by their tormentors.
One of the residents named Bola Omotunde, a self-employed woman in
Kajola community, spoke to our correspondent from a partition on her window.
Speaking in a low tone, the mother of three recounted what happened
in the community on Sunday.
“It was a terrible experience. Those boys wreaked so much havoc
here. We thank God that the government has started dealing with them.
Throughout yesterday, the sound of gunshots would not let us sleep.
It has been a traumatic experience and my children are not back yet.
I paid N10,000 per night in a hotel for three days before a friend
took my family in. My children did not write their third term examination
before trouble broke out here.
Those boys were going from house to house, kidnapping people. I
know they will never come back, but it will take time for things to be normal
around here,” she said.
But there was no sign of life in Omotunde’s neighbourhood, which
was in the Zone A area of Kajola. Not far away from her residents, two men in a
block-making factory were busy at work, unperturbed by the deafening silence
around them.
One of them, who identified himself as Bello, said some residents
had seized the opportunity to construct their houses.
“It is not true that people want to sell their houses. Even if you
want to sell, who will buy? What I have noticed is that some residents come in to
continue the building of their houses because there was no Omo Onile (land
grabbers) to disturb them.
You will find artisans working on a few houses between 10am and
3pm. The sites become empty as soon as it is 3.pm. I don’t live here. I live at
Ogolonto with my partner.
I come here before 10.am and by 4.pm, I start the journey back home
to Ogolonto,’’ he said.
At Ola Imam community, the gloom was palpable. As in Kajola, the
streets were deserted. This was the community where eight landlords, who
volunteered to serve as security men, were slaughtered in one night by
marauding pipeline vandals.
A resident, who declined to give his name, said the community would
not forget the incident in a while. He berated the government for coming to the
aid of the community too late in the day.
“The harm has been done already. Eight landlords in this community
were murdered. They were vigilantes who volunteered to keep our community safe
from petty thieves.
Only one of them was spared because he was nursing his sick child
that night. He thought he would be able to join the others, but he slept off.
We woke up to the sight of their dead bodies in the morning of the
next day.
“No matter what the government is doing now, it cannot bring back
those men. Who will compensate their families? We have more widows and
fatherless children than ever in the community. One man was kidnapped in his
house.
I learnt that he paid N5m as ransom. I think this effort of the
government is too late,’’ he said.
There was nobody to attend to our correspondent when she visited
the homes of some of the landlords on Monday.
A female resident, who also declined to give her name, said some
women who were raped by the attackers had died of trauma.
“Nobody knew this kind of misfortune could befall this community.
Some women were raped right in front of their family members.
Do you know that the invaders even used the barrels of their guns
To Molest the women? Some of the victims died shortly after the acts.
We are praying that the government will fight this battle till the
end. The soldiers are more concentrated in the Elepete side which is close to
the creeks. But we also feel their impact here,” she said.
Source: PunchNg
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