Tunnel of death:

AYOOLA OLAOLUWA|

The tunnels at Obadeyi Ajala and Ile Zik, both situated on the Lagos end of the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway seem innocuous enough. But underneath these massive flood channels are criminal hideouts where kidnappers, robbers and ritualists reign supreme.
Right inside the bowel of these tunnels, the princes of darkness robbed, maimed, butchered, and raped their victims with residents oblivious of their evil deeds.
However, things changed in the spate of three days. Between Tuesday, August 8 and Thursday 10th, the bustling commercial city was thrown into confusion when a government road sweeper noticed a woman being pulled underground and heard her screams.
She alerted passers-by who noticed that the cry was coming from the underground where the canal is linked at Obadeyi bus stop, Ijaiye.
Residents, aided by the police were alerted and came to the scene and rescued the victims and apprehended the culprits. Others were not so fortunate as they were lynched.
Curious Lagosians who visited the canals where several people were said to have been killed were stunned seeing the number of personal belongings of victims such as braziers, pants, bags, shoes, ATM cards and identity cards.

One of the kidnappers tunnels discovered at Obadeyi Ajala

COMPLEX TUNNELS
Business Hallmark findings revealed that these dastardly acts have been going on in the tunnels and several others scattered all over the state for several years.
According to Mr. Michael Ayobolu, a director with the Federal Ministry of Works in charge of Highways in Lagos, the development did not come as a surprise to him and many other construction workers. He disclosed that several dens have been discovered during construction works on major highways in the state.
“I must confess to you that it will be very difficult to stop these criminal acts except government is ready to deploy massive resources to combat it. These underground water channels are spread around Lagos. They were built by construction giant, Julius Berger, to de-flood the city. They are lengthy, massive and interconnected. A rogue can rob his victim in Oshodi, dashed under the tunnel and come out unnoticed in Isolo. That is how wide and connected the water channels are. They all discharge their contents in the Lagoon.
“During construction or renovation works on drainages, we normally see signs of human habitation and signs of crimes committed inside these tunnels. Construction workers have discovered several human parts and personal belongings which they normally report to law enforcement agencies”, he said.
According to Ayobolu, the Ile Zik tunnel, a drainage between the junction connecting Agege and Ikeja Along, leads to another opening at National Bus Stop in Agege area, while the Obadeyi Ajala tunnels connects to the one at Ijaiye, through Meiran, Kola before discharging water into a major canal at the Toll Gate end of the expressway.
On how to check the menace, he said, “It will be very tasking and almost impossible to fight. The tunnels we are talking about are hundreds of kilometres long. They are not just at Ajala or Ile-Zik, but scattered all over the state. Apart from permanently deploying the entire personnel of the state police command inside the tunnels to make sure criminals don’t inhabit them, which I believe would be fruitless, the best solution is to deploy technology, like regularly flooding the drainages with pressurised water to flush out criminal elements. The other option is to install sensors in them which would be triggered when breached”, he said.
BH findings also revealed that since most of the tunnels used by criminals are located very close to canals and isolated flood plains, criminals go about their nefarious acts unnoticed.
When our correspondent visited the discovered den of the kidnappers at Obadeyi Ajala last Wednesday, the place was deserted. Tall grasses and trees have sprung up everywhere.
Several abandoned buildings, half sunk, were scattered in the swampy plain. The owners of the buildings, BH learnt, abandoned them due to incessant flooding.
The only functional buildings close to the canal are occupied by Ecobank and General Insurance Company, which sand filled the terrain to the level of the expressway before constructing their offices. Another massive reclamation is ongoing beside the bank, probably for a building project.
The owner of one of the affected houses, Alhaji Mutiu Inaolaji, told BH that the axis used to be dry land.
“It was not like this before. The place used to be a highland. However, trouble started when Julius Berger elevated the road during the reconstruction of the Lagos- Abeokuta Expressway in an attempt to divert water from the road. Since water must find its level, floods started discharging into houses that are now on lower plains.
“The problem was exacerbated by the Industrial and General Insurance Company (IGI) and Ecobank, which sand-filled their allotted land up to the level of the road before building their branches, therefore spilling all the waters into our own plots.
“Since we have already built our houses and cannot afford to pull them down, sand filled and rebuild, we are always at the mercy of the elements whenever it rains. When our houses stated sinking, we had to leave to avoid possible harm. The houses have now been taken over by criminals who use them for their devilish deeds”, he said.
A police source at the Ijaiye-Ojokoro Police Station who spoke with BH said that though investigation is ongoing, preliminary enquiry indicate that occultism, ritual killings, kidnappings, trading in human parts and such other unprintable happenings took place at the den before it was busted.
According to him, criminals usually target pedestrians crossing or plying the roads early in the morning and late at night. They then dragged their victims into the manhole, which stretches along the expressway, where they were either robbed, raped, killed, dismembered, and evacuated from the scene, depending on the gang operating at that particular period.
He claimed that some decomposed human parts and other clothing materials of victims were gathered from the scene of the crime and that several such dark spots have been identified by security agencies, with the support of the Lagos State government.
“The Nigerian police and some security operatives have stepped up their game to tackle the security challenges in the state. The authorities have started paying attention to these dark spots.
“Findings revealed that the inhuman activities that occurred in the tunnels are coordinated by kidnappers and ritualists who are often patronized by some affluent Nigerians and politicians who use human flesh for rituals”, he said.
Speaking on the development, the spokesman for the Lagos Neighbourhood Safety Agency (LNSA), Afolabi Olawale, pledged to collaborate with the police in curbing the rampant kidnappings, ritual killings and other crimes in the state.
Olawale said that the agency would gather intelligence for the police to track down suspected kidnappers and ritualists in the state.
“We will complement the Nigerian police in its effort to track down criminal dens by offering intelligence gathered by our personnel.
“When we make an arrest or discover such dens, we immediately hand over to police for investigation and possible prosecution,” he said.
Olawale said that LNSA officials had also been directed to participate in Community Development Association (CDA) meetings for it to be aware of security challenges facing the people.
“The CDA meeting is also to be attended by the corps to note all the security challenges in the community for necessary action,” he said.