Chairman of the Lagos State Task Force, CSP Saheed Egbeyemi (middle) addressing members of the press on the clampdown on illegal commercial motorcycle operation in the State at Safety Arena, Oshodi, on Friday, August 30, 2019.

Boko Haram members? Bandits? Kidnappers? Who were they? These questions, perhaps, went though the minds of the people who tipped off the Lagos State Environment Sanitation and Special Offenses Taskforce on Friday. It swing into action and intercepted a truck laden with 48 motorcycles and 123 men coming from Jigawa State.

The truck was seized, following a tip off by members of the public who raised security concern about the manner with which the occupants of the truck conducted themselves.

After the interception, the truck and its occupants were moved to the office of the Taskforce in Oshodi for interrogation.

Cross section of occupants of the truck with motorcycles intercepted by the Lagos State Task Force on its entry into the State.

Chairman of Lagos State Taskforce, Mr Yinka Egbeyemi, said the trailer was accosted in the wee hours on Friday, after a security alert from the public. He said his team swiftly responded to the information, which led to the seizure of the truck and its occupants at Agege area of Lagos.

He said: “While my team was on operation, we got information from the public that some people had entered into Lagos in trailer loaded with over 300 people. We swiftly responded to the alert and trailed the truck from Berger area to Agege. We eventually intercepted the truck which carried no few than 123 men and 48 motorcycles.

Truckload of motorcycles intercepted by the Lagos State Task Force on its entry into the State.

“We have interrogated most of the truck’s occupants; from the information we gathered, some of them said they were coming from Jigawa State, with 48 of them claiming to own seized motorcycles. The rest of them said they came to Lagos in search of greener pasture.”

Egbeyemi said the Lagos Police Command had directed that a fact-finding panel be constituted to profile the detained occupants of the truck, but he added that nothing incriminating was found on them apart from the motorcycles.

One of the detained occupants, Shuaibu Haruna, said he left Jigawa State to work in Lagos with his motorcycle. He claimed to have a wife and a son, but said he needed to double his income to cater for his family.

Haruna said he intended to stay in Isolo area to which he had already paid N7,000 as accommodation fee.

Another occupant, Mohammed Ibrahim, said he left his base in the Northern part of the country to keep himself busy after finishing his farm work. He said he was going to Badagry to join his brother.