Abdulhakeem F. Akinola
3 August 2008
Lagos — Originally, the iron gates and burglaries were conceived as means of checking entry to and exit from houses and secured premises. They were meant to reinforce security by keeping unwanted visitors and intruders at bay.
Fabricated iron gates also helped to ensure privacy for residents. But, over time, they have taken up entirely a different function. Gates began to spring up on various streets in metropolitan Lagos, particularly at a time when robbers, both petty thieves and armed robbers, started terrorizing the city, robbing and maiming their victims. Then, Lagosians took their fate in their hands when they felt that the state and its security agencies were incapable of helping them. They began to erect street gates to keep men of the under-world out of their neighbourhood. Angered by the many problems created by the street gate syndrome in Lagos, about four years ago, the state government threatened to pull down the street gates across the metropolis, if residents did not stop locking them before 8:00pm daily.
Today, more streets have gates at both ends with one side permanently under lock and key while the other is kept open between the early hours of the day, say around 5:30am till 11:00pm everyday. Many motorists have lamented that some of these gates were left locked during the day when they should be open to serve as access roads during the peak period when traffic moves at snail speed on the highways. They argued that the locked gates have contributed greatly to the perennial traffic jams in some areas of the city state.
Perhaps, it is based on these complaints that the State Security Council ordered that all the security gates on the streets must be open between 6:00am and 8:00pm everyday. The communiqué issued by the council advised landlords and community leaders across the state to employ the service of guards to man the gates during the day and gave them a 30-day period of grace to comply with the directive stressing that any gate found locked in the day will be pulled down and those responsible for flouting the order be brought to book.
When Oodua Trust went to town to ask questions on the matter, it was mixed reactions: Mr. Sanni Dauda, a self-employed man said the gates were a necessary device to check robbery incidents in the city replete with many able-bodied young men who want to acquire wealth at all cost. According to him, residents resorted to mounting street gates when it became obvious that the security situation was beyond the police's control. "To protect themselves, their families and properties, landlords in Lagos, through Community Development Association (CDA) had no choice but to resort to the erection of street gates," he noted.
Dauda, however, agreed that as important as the gates were, they have become a nuisance since they would inhibit free movement of both vehicular and human traffics. "They restrict the number of passable roads in the metropolis and commercial drivers are left with very few routes to ply. They worsen the traffic situation by increasing the number of vehicles on the open roads," he added. He also noted that such street gates equally pose a threat to visitors who were not familiar with the neighborhood. For Mr. Sunday Agbabiauka, an insurance broker, the gates serve no useful purpose. As far as he is concerned, they are nuisance. "Since residents started erecting the gates, has the incidence of armed robbery reduced?" he asked, adding that petty thieves and armed robbers were not stupid. "Since they know most streets have gates, which are locked at night, they themselves no longer operate late at night," he said.
Agbabiaka said it was usually when people left for work at dawn or when they return at dusk that robbers attack them sometimes on their streets. He argued that though these gates are many, it has never been heard that a group of armed robbers or petty thieves in the neighborhood were locked up on any street. He said when they operate, it is usually police that called to come and arrest them. "Can we now say with these gates on their streets, armed robbers no more invade our neighbourhood?" he asked rhetorically. The Insurance Broker said he would not mind if not for the unnecessary restriction the gates place on people's movement. He said the gates restrict ones choice of way. He argued that the daily traffic jams at Ogunlana Drive, Masha, Kilo up to Aguda area of Surulere would be greatly minimised if the street gates usually under lock and key for better part of the day in that axis are removed.
He said because most streets linking the major roads are locked, all motorists in that neighbourhood must follow the same route and at peak periods, when people are returning from work, they all get stuck in the traffic jam for hours. He complained that a journey from Ogunlana Drive to Aguda in Surulere for example, which should not take more than maximum of 20 minutes, sometimes takes more than two hours. "Left for me, I would say let them dismantle these gates. I have heard stories of how people who had emergencies at night got trapped because their gates were locked and the guards were nowhere to be found. Mr. Adegoke Adewoyin, a Court Clerk is however opposed to the call to pull down the street gates. He said the gates are the last resort for defenseless residents who are being threatened by hoodlums.
He complained that the state government's efforts against bandits have not checked the activities of robbers and petty thieves. In his opinion, "in a foreseeable future, with the level of influx of people into Lagos and high level of unemployment, government may not be able to provide the much needed security." Against this background, Adewoyin said closing the gates become alternative means of checking banditry. He, however, admittted that one of the fall-outs of the security arrangement was the restriction of movement. But this he contended as "a necessary inconvenience in view of the fact that we place security of life above any such temporary inconvenience. I believe that to a large extent, the erection of gates has helped in limiting operations of the men of the underworld."
Adewoyin opined that government's directive on the security gates would succeed only if the Lagos State Police Command had enough policemen that can take care of the population, put at about 18 million. Mrs. Yemi Sobitan, a school teacher at Alagbado area of the city would not support nor oppose erection of street gates. According to her, the gates are not foolproof to robbers. "Late last year, a group of about eight armed robbers invaded our street. They forced the street gate open and raided the residents from house-to-house, sparing no house. Our security men could not be found throughout the time the robbers were operating the robbers carted away goods and cash. This was around 10:30pm on Saturday.
The street gate has no meaning to me, from that experience," she stated. According to her, robbers no longer operated late in the night so the street gates serve no useful purpose other than making residents live like animals in the zoo. She added that one of her relatives had another bitter experience. Sobitan explained that an unlucky relative who was in labour lost her life because their street gate was locked and the security man who ought to be beside the gate went away with the key.
But the Lagos State governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola recently reassured all residents that the crime rate was progressively dropping, even as he challenged all citizens to play their expected roles of supplying required information to ensure a secured society. Fashola gave the reassurance while receiving the new state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Marvel Akpoyibo on a courtesy visit to the seat of government in Ikeja. He said the state government's commitment remain unshaken and unrelenting in providing support to the police in securing lives and property. He added that the state government would soon donate another set of state-of-the-art equipment to the state police command in order to enable the command continue to discharge its responsibilities.
He noted that Akpoyibo was familiar with the state's terrain and would be able to discharge his duties well. He charged the police high command to always strike a balance between knowledge of the terrain and the need to effect operational abilities when posting top officers. The governor, who said he had worked with four different Commissioners of Police in the last one year, added that such frequent changes had created issues of orientation with local mode and system.
He also asked the Nigerian Police to emulate the recent transparent move by the State Executive Council by publishing the telephone numbers of all Divisional Police Officers across the state to make accessibility easier for the public. The governor urged the rank and file of the police to ensure that every bad officer who engaged in acts that brought down the image of the police got sanctioned appropriately. While asking the police to be civil in their approach and dealings with the public, Fashola also asked the citizenry to be law-abiding and vigilant at all times as it was very beneficial when there was improved security. He expressed optimism that the new commissioner would make a success out of his latest posting.
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