Ajegunle City Turns To Criminal Den 

 CYRIACUS IZUEKWE

The families of Ajegunle residents in Apapa area of Lagos are in a state of panic over the high rate of crimes resulting in killings among the youths who take laws into their hands through jungle justice.

P.M.EXPRESS gathered that on daily basis some jobless youths commit various crimes such as vandalization of vehicles and homes, prostitution, drugs, armed robbery and others social vices.

Most of the suspects were either taken to court enroute to the prisons or the residents secretly applied jungle justice which was said to be carried out mostly by some hoodlums who have not been caught.

P.M.EXPRESS’ investigation revealed that it was the youths who also had questionable characters, and some who were suspected criminals that were behind the killings. They also often engaged in fighting among the rival cult groups.

It was also gathered that the police in the area had become helpless because of the massive population and the nature of the environment where houses were mainly built in such a way usually called “face me and I face you”.

Recently, it was the popular music artiste Daddy Showkey that raised an alarm on the issue of killing amongst youths but did not state the cause of the killings and who the perpetrators were.

When P.M.EXPRESS visited the area, the residents confirmed that many young people have lost their lives as a result of cultism and crimes.

One of the residents, Kelvin Bosa told P.M.EXPRESS that most of the young boys and even matured men,  mostly jobless and take solace in smoking, drugs, engage in sexual escapades and drinking the locally made gin,  popularly known as “Ogogoro” from morning till night.

Bosa said that when they do not have money to maintain their weird lifestyle, they then take to crimes and start terrorising the residents. He went further to say that the criminals in the area have a simple rule which they call “don’t be caught”. And if eventually such criminals were caught, it was their colleagues that will join hands and ensure that the suspects were lynched.

Bosa said another thing prevalent in the area was cultism which he said has helped make many young people lazy and rendered many others useless even ladies.

“On daily basis young boys and girls are recruited and forced to join different cult groups under serious threat and they will be taught how to drink, smoke,  cause violence and other related crimes”

Another resident who simply identified himself as Gabriel said there was need for government to come down to Ajegunle to assist in rehabilitating the youths there and re-orientate their approach to life.

He said that most of them do not have jobs and some of them claimed they were into music without showing any proof, and they cannot achieve much because of the economic situation in the country.

“They are now killing themselves because they are not doing anything and yet they want to live better lives” he remarked.

Some of the residents who spoke to P.M.EXPRESS said similar things and it appeared that there was no solution in sight to solve the menace of cultism, violence, killings and other social vices going on there.