AIG Ahmed Iliyasu of Zone 2 on patrol of the affected communities with the Ogun State CP, Kenneth Ebrimson, and Lagos CP, Hakeem Odumosu.
By Nihinlolawa Akanke
The Police on rescue mission reportedly retreated in Agbado area of Lagos when they saw the intimidating number of the Awawa boys.
This is alarming! The time to expunge Awawa from Lagos dictionary is now!
When Mohammed Yusuf founded the Boko Haram group in Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria, in 2002, nobody ever dreamt of the latter years sorrow and disaster.
The group which started as a controversial Islamic purifier became a sect, condemning western education. It existed for about nine years before unleashing it’s first major mayhem in 2011, when it claimed responsibility for the Abuja Police Headquarters bombing.
The BH has since became a blood sucking, flesh eating monster defying government’s numerous tactics to end it’s reign of terror.
The Awawa boys similarly grouped themselves in 2012, in Agege, Lagos Nigeria to ‘help themselves against unemployment’.
They operated in large numbers, around Agege, Ikeja, Abule-Egba axis between 2912 and 2015, breaking into shops, houses, at night and early morning, looting and maiming.
A particular Commissioner of Police dealt ruthlessly with them, forcing their retreat in 2015.
As they now take the COVID-19 lockdown opportunity to regroup and unleash mayhem on the society, the Police is expected to go back to his drawing board and perfect ways of crushing the hoodlums.
This seems the right time to nip Awawa developing disaster in the bud, hence it transforms into full blown basket of trouble.
Kudos to the communities that resisted the Awawa operations by keeping vigil and calling the bluff of the group.
This is the point where the Federal and the Southwest governors should as a matter of urgency take decisive measures to arrest the spread of Awawa operations.
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