Youths protest against harassment by security agencies
Youths of Oguntedo Village, Satellite town, Lagos, at the weekend protested around the community calling on the Lagos State governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, to come to their aid by stopping the harassment of residents. The youths, who claimed that different security agencies, especially the State Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), had been coming to their community to terrorise them through incessant arrest, claiming they were hoodlums.
Some of the inscriptions on the banners the protesters had on as they marched through the community were ‘Governor Akinwunmi Ambode Save Our Souls;’ ‘Innocent blood is being shed unjustly;’ ‘SARS is arresting innocent people’.
After moving round the community, they stopped by at the palace of Olu of Oguntedo, Oba Latifu Sadiku Olarinde. One of the youths, Gbenga Olarinde, said they decided to embark on the protest after one of them was killed last week when SARS operatives stormed the community shooting indiscriminately with the bullet hitting a tanker truck motor-boy that died immediately.
He said they were tired of the activities of the different security agencies visiting their community as there was no reason for such, because there is no violence that warrant them coming in. “We need peace in our community, that is being threatened by police and others. Security agencies have turned our village into abattoir as they regularly come here to harass and intimidate residents.”
The Secretary of the Olarinde family, Prince Lateef Olasinde, buttressed the claims of the youths, calling on the Inspector-General of Police to call his men to order over the continued intimidation of residents of the community.
“We are the satellite town land-owners and we are regularly being tagged with negative names like hoodlums and criminals. Some people who fraudulently acquired their lands are instigating the police and other security agencies to harass residents, including family members of the land owners, with the intention of silencing us.”
On his part, the Olu of Oguntedo Village, Oba Latifu Olarinde, pleaded with the youths to continue to be law-abiding, hoping that the appropriate authorities will call to order members of the police, DSS, Army and Navy that have been coming to terrorise the community.
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