Amid rising number of robberies during lockdown, residents in Lagos have began to form vigilante groups to keep guard against attackers on a looting spree.
Residents in Alagbado, a Lagos suburb, said they had also taken on the responsibility of defending their homes following an attack by a group of bandits.
“My decision to join the vigilante is to protect my home because … the government is not doing their job,” Awosusi Ahmed, a resident said.
“I would have been in my own abode, sleeping, with the confidence that the police is doing their job. But since I’ve not received any help from the police, and I’m not expecting any help from them as well, so I have to be strong,” he said.
Such incidents are not restricted to Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, as some communities in neighbouring Ogun state have also reported similar attacks.
On Monday, the police said they were bolstering forces in Lagos and Ogun “in the wake of recent activities of hoodlums and street urchins in the border communities” and announced the arrest of some 200 suspects.