RAID: Task Force nabs sex workers, miscreants in Ikoyi

THE Special Committee on Cleanup of Ikoyi, Lagos, in a joint operation with men of Lagos State Task Force on Environmental and Special Offences, have arrested eight sex workers and three miscreants around Ikoyi area of the state. They were pick up in an abandoned building on Club Road, Ikoyi, said to be owned by a deceased retired military top brass.

The operation was led by the Chairman of the Task Force, Superintendent Yinka Egbeyemi, who said the operation was
sequel to series of complaints by residents of Club Road over the activities going on in the building, especially at dusk. Speaking with newsmen while parading the suspects at his Alausa office, Egbeyemi said all the suspects could not offer cogent explanations on their means of livelihood. The paraded suspects include Ajoke Precious, 22, from Kogi State; Akaana Agateh, 26, Benue; Agbo Elizabeth, 18, Benue; Augustin Mary, Benue; Ajanjo Blessing, 24; Mary Douglas, 22, Bayelsa, and Mati Dodi, 28. He said that the Task Force had earlier gone to the same abandoned building, which had become a convergence point for all sorts of characters, including uniformed men, who purchased alcohol and drugs as well as brothel for prostitutes. Egbeyemi, added that after the first visit, surveillance was placed on the building which is close to the Ikoyi Police Station and indicated that questionable characters were still patronising the place and terrorising residents, a development which ultimately led to the operation by the cleanup team. Some of the prostitutes, while speaking with newsmen, claimed they all engaged in menial jobs and were assisted by one military personnel named Salau to live in the building, since they had accommodation problem. Mary Douglas said she arrived in Lagos in January to stay with her uncle, who had since relocated out of Lagos. She added that the necessity to make ends meet forced her to stay back and seek alternative accommodation means, while she sold fairly-used clothes at Obalende P& T.