With less than one month to the Presidential election, no fewer than 116 suspects were arrested on Monday by soldiers of the 9 Brigade, Nigerian Army, who combed criminal hideouts in the under-bridge area of Oshodi, among other areas in Lagos State.
During the raid, the soldiers searched bags and pockets of commuters and people going through the area were ordered to raise their hands.
According to a Twitter user, @OgoMushin, it looked as if a state of emergency was declared.
But commenting on the operation, the Assistant Director, Army Public Relations, 9 Brigade, Nigerian Army, Major A.K. Bello, said, “There is this exercise ‘Still Water’ that we are conducting now. The exercise is to curb criminalities in Lagos State. In this operation, we decided to go to the Oshodi area and we arrested 116 persons. We took them to our barracks where we did more investigation.
“Those that we caught with hard drugs and weapons, we handed them over to the police. We released close to 80 persons after we checked and found out that they were innocent, but we caught some in the act of taking Indian hemp, and some others with weapons.”
Lagos was among the states identified by experts as having a high risk of violence during the forthcoming elections.
CHECKPOINTCHARLEY 