Merchants and suburbanites in the Oshodi Market, Orile Oshodi range of Lagos State, took to their heels on Thursday after associated individuals with the Oodua People’s Congress unleashed fear on the region.
Observers revealed to PUNCH Metro that the posse, which numbered near to 50, conveyed refined weapons and shot sporadically into the air.
Inhabitants said some of them wore covers. Drivers heading towards Oshodi from the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, were compelled to take a temporary route from the Ladipo transport stop after the criminals blockaded the interstate.
In the following fight, a few individuals escaping from risk were said to have been harmed, as some road urchins utilized the chance to seize passersby of their assets.
A few shops in the zone were additionally purportedly plundered by the urchins. At the point when our journalist went to the range, he watched that stalls and shops were closed as dealers mourned their destiny. There was substantial vicinity of security agents, who requested individuals to raise their hands as they cruised by. Our journalist watched that a few fighters, who assumed control over the scaffold and the primary street, asked a few young people to do frog hops on the extension.
A vendor, Samuel Ojukwu, said the gunmen were loyalists of President Goodluck Jonathan, adding that their presence created panic. The chaos was said to have lasted between 8am and 9.30am.
He said, “This morning, as I was arranging newspapers on the newsstand, I saw some people running.
“I didn’t know what was pursuing them, so I sat at the stand. A colleague, who was also running, asked me to run, but I said I won’t run since I didn’t see anything pursuing the people.
“Then, these heavily armed men showed up. I started shaking with fright where I sat as they approached my newsstand. The man who led them had two pistols in his side pockets, and held another one in his hand. “One of them came to me and said, ‘Baba, don’t be afraid. When you vote on Saturday, vote for Jonathan.’ I was so afraid.”
He said afterwards, the group went towards the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway and began shooting indiscriminately into the air. He said as they approached a military base on the road, they retreated to avoid a collision with military men. It was learnt that as the shooting continued, the group dared some people to come out and face them. Another witness, Ojuolape Obafemi, a trader, said some members of the group hid their identity.
“Some of the hoodlums wore masks and I believe they are known faces. That was why they covered their faces.
“They entered into streets and nobody could come out to challenge them. I believe they were OPC members because they wore all kinds of ammunition and amulet,” she said.
She added that soon after the group left, another set of hoodlums, wielding sticks, bottles and cutlasses took over the road.
Our correspondent learnt that the hoodlums began to harass the people.
“These boys were the ones who entered into shops and looted them. They entered a bag shop and looted it. They also dispossessed people of their valuables,” she said.
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