LASG intercepts truck loaded with 123 persons, 48 motorbikes

A truck loaded with 123 persons and 48 motorcycles coming from Jigawa State was intercepted in Agege area of Lagos State on Friday by operatives of the Special Taskforce on Environmental Sanitation and Special Offenses.

The truck was impounded following the alarm raised by members of the public about the conduct of the occupants of the truck.

It was said that the truck and its occupants had been moved to the office of the Taskforce in Oshodi for interrogation.

Chairman of the Taskforce, Yinka Egbeyemi, said the vehicle was accosted in the wee hours on Friday, after a security alert from the public. He said his men swiftly responded to the information, which led to the seizure of the truck and its occupants at Agege area of Lagos.

He said: “While my team was on operation, we got information from the public that some people had entered into Lagos in trailer loaded with over 300 people. We swiftly responded to the alert and trailed the truck from Berger area to Agege. We eventually intercepted the truck which carried no few than 123 men and 48 motorcycles.

“We have interrogated most of the truck’s occupants; from the information we gathered, some of them said they were coming from Jigawa State, with 48 of them claiming to own seized motorcycles. The rest of them said they came to Lagos in search of greener pasture.”

Egbeyemi disclosed that the Lagos Police Command had directed that a fact-finding panel be constituted to profile the detained occupants of the truck, but he added that nothing incriminating was found on them apart from the motorcycles.

One of the occupants of the truck, Shuaibu Haruna, said he left Jigawa State to work in Lagos with his motorcycle. He claimed to have a wife and a son, but said he needed to double his income to cater for his family.

Haruna said he intended to stay in Isolo area to which he had already paid N7,000 as accommodation fee.