By Desire Emmanuel
Some hoodlums, miscreants as well as other street urchins on Thursday, March 26, set a part of railway corridor ablaze at the Fagba area of Lagos State when men of the state’s taskforce and other security agencies carried out a raid on their various hideouts.
The Lagos State Taskforce announced the incident in a statement shortly after the raid, saying the miscreants and street urchins, who also comprised call girls and “Boller Boys,” set part of the corridor ablaze in an attempt to resist arrest and evade law enforcement.
The railway corridor, which has increasingly become a haven for criminal activities, had earlier been flagged by security operatives for various activities including robbery, rape, cultism, drug peddling, running of brothels where teenagers are paraded as strippers.
Some of the urchins were also said to be involved in the stoning of moving trains and their passengers.
Apparently in response to various complaints about the activities of the miscreants and urchins, the Taskforce and other agencies carried out a targeted raid on various parts of Agege to restore order and safety in the area.
The operation, which commenced in the early hours of Thursday, covered Alfa Nla, Okekoto, Pen Cinema in the Agege axis, and the Fagba Railway Corridor.
During the operation at Fagba, officers encountered pockets of resistance from the miscreants, who escalated the situation by setting parts of the railway corridor on fire. The unrest also posed threats to nearby facilities, including Sunbeth Filling Station and the Zenith Bank branch.
Also during the raid, a number of the hoodlums were arrested in connection with the arson and related criminal acts.
“The situation was eventually brought under control through the swift intervention of Taskforce operatives, supported by the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service, whose efforts helped to contain the fire and restore normalcy across the affected areas,” the Taskforce said in the statement.
It added that all arrested suspects will be charged to court in accordance with the Lagos State Environmental Management and Protection Law of 2017.
