By Ayo Alonge
THE crisis in the Mile 12 area of Lagos, which consumed many lives and property recently, has abated. But many of the children displaced during the clash are yet to reunite with their parents.
Some of the kids are currently being housed in a facility in Surulere area of Lagos.
One of the kids gave his name as Israel Akomolede. He’s seven years old. He was taken to Surulere along with his three-year-old sister by a Good Samaritan, it was gathered. “We can’t find our parents; we don’t know where our parents are,” Israel told the reporter.
Zainab, 12, and her younger brother are also among the children in the facility. It was learnt that they were returning home from school during the incident when their landlord picked them up, put them in his car and drove out of the area to save them from the hoodlums. Zainab lamented that she and her brother had no idea where their parents were.
“We were just coming back from school when we saw people running here and there and that was how we entered the vehicle of our landlord and he drove us away from the scene,” she said.
The reporter observed that 17 persons, including some adults, were staying in the Surulere home.
Those that spoke with the reporter said they had to leave the place after their houses had been destroyed. Others said they were compelled to leave following the curfew declared by the state government.
During the mayhem between some members of the Yorubas and Hausa communities in the Agiliti-Mile 12 axis of Lagos, many persons were killed even as the rampaging hoodlums razed schools, houses and churches. The state governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode declared a curfew on some streets in the community.
A group, the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), has bemoaned the tragic development. In a statement by its State Chairman, Ehi Omokhuale, the group said the Mile 12 market should be relocated to a safer place to put a stop to the unending crises in the area.
“The CLO bemoans the distortion of facts by the state Police Commissioner, Mr. Fatai Owoseni, who had claimed on a national television that no life was lost in the mayhem, when corpses burnt beyond recognition were seen on the same medium being evacuated. Live media accounts of Agiliti-Mile 12 residents also revealed that policemen on the scene abdicated their constitutional duties, giving rise to an outright escalation, until the military personnel arrived.
“The CLO, Lagos State branch, hereby, as a matter of urgency, calls on the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwumi Ambode, to relocate the Mile 12 market to a safe, natural ground, as a permanent solution to the Mile 12 tribal fracas,” the group said.