70 people expelled from Lagos, taken to Anambra

The Lagos State government were said to have deported about 70 people to the commercial city of Onitsha yesterday. Escorted by a police patrol van and heavily armed police men the deportees were described as a mixed range of people from those who showed signs of mental illness to those who said they had been in detention for many years before finally released and put on a one way trailer to Onitsha. Some other reports claim they were beggars and homeless people who had being detained in Ikorodu, Lagos, for over six months for alleged wandering and other minor offences by the Lagos State Kick Against Indiscipline officials. There were some who couldn’t even speak the native language and reports claim that it was the second time such human cargo was brought into Onitsha. According to reports, the trailer dropped them of at the Upper Iweka flyover at about 3.20am, made a U–turn and returned to Lagos. The Chairman of Nigeria Red Cross Society in the South-East, Peter Katchy reportedly condemned the actions by the Lagos State authorities. “It’s very deplorable; it’s very disheartening that a state in the Federal Republic of Nigeria will bundle people, who are not even indigenes of Anambra State, and dump them under the flyover at Upper Iweka in Onitsha,” he said. “Many of the people, we have interviewed are not indigenes of Anambra State. Some of them are from Ebonyi State; some are from Imo State among other states. “It is an insult to Anambra State. We shall draw the attention of the governor of Anambra State to ask the reason for such an invasion of his territory. “We will find out why Lagos State should invade Anambra State territory; and why Lagos State should dump people here and leave them helpless. “We are here on humanitarian purposes and in response to an emergency. From  what we discovered here, this is a human emergency and a human callousness.” The Area Commander of the police at Onitsha,  Benjamin Woru said the police would investigate the incident. He also said that the police would monitor the movement of the victims to ensure there would be no security breach in the commercial city of Onitsha, Vanguard reports.