By Kingsley Adegboye
Against the backdrop of security challenges confronting the nations such as kidnapping, ritual killings, militancy, armed robbery, insurgency etc, concerned organisations and individuals have expressed fear over the influx of foreigners into Nigerian cities particularly Lagos who settle along the coast and become communities from where they carry out their havocs.

Their fear is that if something drastic and urgent is not done to checkmate the activities of these illegal settlements comprising mainly citizens from neighbouring countries, Lagos, a peaceful city, may soon become a den of terrorists and other social vices as being experienced in some states in Nigeria today.

Security consciousness has become more serious following warning purportedly emanating from the Department of State Service (DSS), that Boko Haram insurgents and their sympathisers have arrived, or planning to storm Nigeria, and that their destinations are  Lagos, Rivers and Kwara states respectively.

Aligning with the DSS warning, Safe Habitat, a Lagos-based civil society organization, had recently alerted the Lagos state government and relevant stakeholders over the rate at which aliens from neighbouring countries and criminals fleeing from other parts of Nigeria are migrating to Lagos, and creating illegal settlements in some riverine communities across the state, particularly along  Lekki water fronts.

The NGO with environmental safety as its focus, in a statement by its Executive Director, Ade Williams, noted that his organisation was concerned about information reaching it that some aliens and criminals fleeing from law enforcement agencies had formed the habit of creating illegal settlements and shanties in some water front communities especially in Eti-Osa Local Government Area of the state, where they constitute environmental nuisance and launch criminal attacks against residents of Lekki, Ikoyi, Victoria Island and others.

According to Williams, in order to pre-empt attack by these criminals, the state government and relevant security agents to must take a decisive action against such settlements and shanties, not only to protect the environment, but to preserve lawful residents and business development in the area and the entire state.

The organisation, while commending Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos state for taking  action last year to rid Ikoyi and Victoria Island of such environmental nuisance, said past governments in the state had summoned similar courage to cleanse Kuramo beach of criminal activities in 2007 by dislodging illegal settlers erecting shanties there.

“We recall that some concerned residents of Eti Osa had petitioned complaining of the incessant harassment, nuisance and robbery perpetrated by the occupants of the shanties at Ebute-Ikate, Elegushi. Following that, the Ikate Elegushi Residents Association also wrote another petition to the Lagos State Task Force, Alausa, Ikeja,  to further complain about the unwholesome activities of the occupants of the shanties in that community.

Unwholesome  activities

“We can also remember that sometime in September 2014, a fight reportedly broke out at the shanties at Ebute Ikate, Ikateland between rival groups of Delta/Eastern extractions on the one hand and their Egun counterparts on the other as a result of which one Ogosu, the Egun cult leader allegedly killed one Daniel Edet who belonged to the rival group. But due to the timely intervention of policemen from Ilasan Police Station, the clash was prevented from escalating into a full-fledged internecine tribal war.

“These are just a few of the several incidents of environmental nuisance in that part of the state we can mention now, in addition to the current security threat these shanties constitute to the entire state at the moment. We dare say that it will be in the interest of everyone if the state government and the relevant stakeholders will be pro-active now and save residents and the environment of further nuisance by removing these shanties and dislodging their illegal occupants”.

“Good enough, coincidentally, Lagos state government, either heeding the warning by the group, or in continuation with its urban renewal programmes, two days after, carried out the demolition of shanties and illegal structures in V.I. and Ikoyi. Among the illegal settlements affected was a community earlier known as “Ebute-Ikate”, but christened Otodo-Gbame by illegal settlers, a name associated with Togo or Benin Republic”, the statement said.

Commenting on the demolition of Otodo-Gbame, a community leader, Chief Abdullahi Ajibola stated “Although, we learnt that the illegal settlers have gone to court, but I think Lagos has taken the right step by restoring sanity to our area”.

Also commenting on the demolition of Otodo-Gbame, Comrade Tajudeen Osho, an environmentalist noted that “Beyond Eti-Osa, other areas that government and security agents need to beam their search light on include abandoned public places such as the National Arts Theatre, Old Secretariat, Ikoyi and its suburbs where there is concentration of able-bodied young men, who are from Northern part of the country.”

“One curious thing is that these young men do not speak either English or pidgin, while some who understand Hausa are not of northern origin. But the fact remains that they are cohabiting with Hausas in the market. They come to Lagos in their hundreds on monthly, if not weekly basis, without any means of accommodation, employment, or sustenance.”