Our lives as under-bridge tenants’.
Some suspects arrested by operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Lagos State Police Command in connection with the affray that occurred when rival groups of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) clashed in Oshodi, Lagos penultimate Friday, have denied molesting innocent people who were trapped in the violent face-off.
Pleading innocence in a chat with our correspondent during the week, they attributed their arrest to the misfortune of living under the flyover, whereas the real culprits were some members of the NURTW and hoodlums who had been operating in the area for long.
During the mayhem that occurred under the Oshodi flyover around 7.30 pm on the fateful day, scores of innocent people were injured and dispossessed of their personal belongings, including money, handbags, cell phones and jewellery. The suspects claimed that some of them resided under the flyover because they could not afford to rent apartments in the city.
Four of them, who spoke with our correspondent, said they watched helplessly as the hoodlums beat innocent people silly before dispossessing them of their money and other valuable items. The young men, who confessed that they had been living under the Oshodi Bridge, include Akin Babatunde, Nuru Lateef, Dare Ajayi and Taye (Taiwo) Odenusi.
Defending himself and his three other counterparts who lived under the bridge, Babatunde, said: "I know Lateef, Dare and Taye a.k.a. Taiwo. We live under the Oshodi Bridge. We are not criminals. We do not have a place to sleep in the night after hustling for a whole day. Some of us survive by carrying loads for others, some sell bottled water, while some work as bus conductors.
"We live there because we don’t have money to rent rooms. If we were bad boys, we would have been driven away from there before now. Even travellers who arrive Oshodi late, we assist them by giving them empty cartons to sleep on for the night and continue their journey in the morning. None of them have complained. I am 11years old and I am from Osun State.
"On that fateful day that hoodlums went on the rampage, I had already carried a load for one woman and she paid me N80. I considered running away when the crisis started, but I thought it would not last. If I knew that it would last as long as five minutes, I would have run towards Mushin, because once there is firing, SARS operatives would storm the area.
"So, I was afraid when SARS operatives arrested me. But the way they handled us reduced my fears. They treated me like the child that I am. I was kept in a separate cell.
"Although I have not taken my bath, my joy is that there are different cells here for the underage, for confirmed criminals and for suspects undergoing screening. We are in the screening cell."
Another suspect, Dare Ajayi, 16, said: "I sell bottled water. On a good day, I sell as much as N7,000. I am not a criminal. Although I am from Ekiti State, I live at Meiran in Lagos. When the crisis started, the criminals did not spare anybody. The firing was too much as members of the NURTW openly fought themselves with dangerous weapons.
"In such a situation, you would not know who is who. It was a free for all. So, I ran away to Mushin, but I did not know that SARS operatives would come there as they combed everywhere in search of the hoodlums."
Nuru Lateef, 15, from Ibadan, Oyo State, said he was a bus conductor but had to sleep under the Oshodi Bridge any day it was too late for him to go home.
"I swear, I am not a thief. I also ran for my life on that fateful day."
Taiwo Odenusi, 15, said his parents abandoned him at the age of 10 and since then, he had been trying to survive by carrying load for people in Oshodi market. He also denied being one of those who looted during the crisis.
He said: "When the fight started, there were gunshots here and there. Everybody started running helter-skelter. I ran to Okumoba where I felt that bullets could not reach me. Nobody could stop them because people were afraid of the guns.
"I sleep under the bridge but I am not a criminal. We use carton as mattress. We know ourselves and we don’t allow thieves to stay with us to avoid attracting policemen, not to talk of SARS."
But besides the underage boys, other suspects were detained by SARS. Among them was 19-year-old Ayo Akintayo, who described himself as a bus driver.
He said: "On that Friday, at about 8pm, I was at Challenge Bus stop and wanted to travel to Ibadan. All of a sudden, five boys came and attacked me. They said there was crisis in our union, but I did not know why they came to attack me. They also attacked people who were not members of the union. I am not a criminal. I am a staff. I have my driver’s licence."
Eighteen-year-old Olanrewaju Salami, a native of Abeokuta, Ogun State, said he was picked up at Ilupeju area where he had taken refuge. "I am not a criminal. I ran for my life because the hoodlums were beating everybody," he said.
Speaking on the arrest of the suspects, the officer in charge, Mr. Abba Kyari, a Superintendent of Police, said: "They are being screened. We will release them as soon as screening is concluded, but with a warning that they should stay away from violent crisis. We kept some of them in separate cells because they are underage and we can only keep suspects that we have enough evidence to charge to court.
"Once we find nothing incriminating, the suspects’ continued stay here won’t be tolerated, to enable us to take care of the main suspects who merit accommodation in our cells. We don’t have room for innocent suspects. You can’t keep them longer than necessary after screening."
Also confirming their arrest, the Public Relations Officer of the Lagos State Police Command, DSP Samuel Jinadu, warned that the command would not tolerate any violent act in the state.
He warned that anyone caught and found culpable would be charged to court.
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