Lagos: Police and Army clash over egunje
24 Jun 2011
These are the men responsible for protecting us
Lagos– The ongoing dispute between the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian police over egunje has resulted in another area-boy style clash inLagos.
Yesterday, commuters and pedestrians were witness to a scene at the Obanikoro area ofLagosStatereminiscent of Nigerian Lawmakers debating in the house of assembly.
It has been widely and wrongly reported that the dispute which resulted in a fist fight between Army personnel and policemen was over the illegal use ofLagosstateBRTbus lane.
This story, which is being vigorously circulated by secret agents who wish to conceal the truth behind the matter, makes the glaringly ridiculous and impossible assertion that a policeman attempted to tow away a uniformed soldier’s car. How can?
Erroneous and misleading as the explanation may be, ordinary Nigerians, and most especially Lagosians, seem to have bought it hook line and sinker.
But this reporter dug deeper into the matter and is now able to bring you the truth, which is:
The reason the police and the army are fighting inLagosis because the former are denying the latter their fair share of tips obtained from commercial vehicle drivers through threat of arrest on spurious grounds.
Apparently, to ensure that their ‘customers’ have enough money to pay them, some crafty policemen in Lagos have now been alerting commercial drivers, most especially Okada operators, of what routes to avoid so as not to run into soldiers who may be guarding one rich man or the other’s house on the streets of Lagos.
It is this selfish and conniving wicked act of sabotage on the part of some layabout policemen that has irked some deranged soldiers and thus resulted in the ongoing battle inLagosStatefor supremacy over the roads.
In fairness to the Nigerian Police and to the Nigerian Army, not all policemen or all soldiers are as undisciplined, reckless, unprofessional and downright stupid as the officers who have been involved in the clashes – there are cadets and recruits on both sides who have never acted outside the law.
- Jowo Mabinu