Police: We arrested 1,320 hoodlums during raid on Lagos communities

Hakeem Odumosu, the Lagos state commissioner of police, says the command has arrested 1,320 “hoodlums and miscreants” across the state.

Speaking at a media briefing on Wednesday, the commissioner said the command had recently established some tactical units to tackle the new dimensions of social vices in the state, and noted that it has paid off.

According to him, weapons and illicit drugs were recovered from the suspects.

“The Command, today, is parading a total number of 1,320 miscreants/hoodlums, who were raided at various locations across the state, and many dangerous weapons, suspected hard drugs and weeds suspected to be Indian hemp were recovered from them,” he said.

Giving a summary of other recent achievements made by the command, the commissioner said the police arrested one Jonathan Nweke, who was arrested with two others in September 2020, for armed robbery by the defunct special anti-robbery squad (SARS) in Ikeja.

Nweke was said to have escaped from detention during the #EndSARS protest.

“The suspect and others escaped from detention during the EndSARS protests. On 30/06/2021, at about 1200hrs, a team of policemen on patrol attached to the Divisional Headquarters Ojo Lagos while on stop and search duty re-arrested the suspect at Volks, off Badagry expressway, with a locally-made Beretta pistol and nine rounds of 9mm live ammunition,” he said.

“The suspect, who is also suspected to be a member of the proscribed IPOB/ESN, confessed to have recently come back from Awka in Anambra state, where he escaped after a cell breaking, and where he acquired the recovered arms and ammunition.”

Odumosu said investigation into the matter is ongoing.

In another case, the commissioner said the police arrested one Gabriel Nwokoro, who claimed to be a serving general in the Nigeria Army, for stealing.

Nwokoro was said to have connived with one Udo John, who was also dressed in army uniform, to defraud a Lagos resident.

According to Odumosu, the two men had allegedly approached Obinna Eze, a point of sale (PoS) machine operator, and fraudulently withdraw N200,000 after providing a fake transaction alert.

While the driver of the vehicle that conveyed the two suspects has been arrested, the police said investigation is ongoing to arrest the other fleeing members of the syndicate.