Lagos crackdown: Vulnerable children arrested, hauled into ‘Black Maria’

Lagos’ street crackdown has seen teenagers arrested by law-enforcement and environmental agencies and packed into overcrowded “Black Maria” vans, raising concerns about their safety, dignity, due process and child-protection safeguards, VICTOR AYENI writes

“Abeg, comot!” two men wearing the green jackets of Kick Against Indiscipline operatives in Lagos State could be heard saying as they rounded up beggars on a Lagos street.

In a viral video of the operation conducted months ago, the beggars, including minors, could be seen being lifted slightly off the ground and forced into the rear of a large, enclosed van with green-painted windows.

The video showed the beggars being taken off the streets as part of an enforcement operation in Lagos.

The vehicle, popularly known as a “Black Maria”, is a bulky, enclosed enforcement van painted in distinctive green colours.

Such vehicles have become a familiar sight during street raids, where people apprehended for offences including street trading, hawking and other alleged environmental violations are transported away from the streets.

In this particular video, which was posted in June by the state Commissioner for the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, on his X handle, he disclosed that a total of 45 beggars were apprehended.

Separate enforcement operations were conducted by the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps in the Oshodi, Agege and CMS areas of the state.

Wahab said 22 beggars were arrested in Oshodi and Agege, comprising adults and a few teenagers, and added that 14 adults and nine children were also apprehended at CMS during the exercise.

He also said clearance operations were ongoing in other parts of the state, including Admiralty Way in Lekki and Addo Road in Ajah.

The enforcement against street beggars took a new turn on May 25 when the state government intensified its environmental enforcement, making 10,634 arrests across the state over a single year.

According to Wahab, 5,715 persons were arrested for illegal highway crossing, while 3,886 others were apprehended for offences including street trading, environmental pollution and cart pushing.

He added that 102 persons were arrested for open defecation, while another 931 individuals were apprehended for waste management-related offences across the state.

Offenders in ‘Black Maria’

On Thursday, Sunday PUNCH observed a Black Maria packed with young people, including minors and teenagers.

The vehicle was filled to capacity with both boys and girls who were being carried through the streets.

It was not immediately ascertained whether the minors were being detained at a correctional centre.

But observers in the area wondered if it was appropriate for the authorities to transport minors to detention facilities in Black Maria vans.

The concern was due to the sordid history that Black Maria vans had accumulated over the years in the country.

Formerly, Black Maria vans were used by the police and prison services to transport prisoners and suspects to courts or jails and also to move awaiting-trial inmates.

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They were often criticised for being overcrowded, hot and poorly ventilated. The Federal Government officially renamed the vehicles from “Black Maria” to “Green Maria” in 2018 to signal a shift towards rehabilitation.

In March 1980, 50 men reportedly suffocated to death inside a packed police van in Lagos, creating a national outcry known as the Black Maria Tragedy.

During military regimes, the vans became known as symbols of political persecution, famously featuring in protests, art and the anti-military music of the late Afrobeat legend, Fela Kuti.

However, these black vans are seen during enforcement operations conducted by LAGESC or the Lagos State Taskforce, which are used to convey arrested offenders from the streets.

A source in LAGESC told Sunday PUNCH that when offenders such as street beggars are picked up on the streets by these agencies, they undergo a formal process of profiling, rehabilitation, prosecution or repatriation.

“The individuals that have been arrested are taken in for documentation to determine their backgrounds, health needs and states of origin. The authorities work with social welfare agencies to provide rehabilitation programmes for vulnerable persons.

“Some of these offenders are charged in mobile or magistrate courts (such as in Oshodi). Those convicted, especially repeat offenders or those linked to organised groups, can face fines or jail terms ranging from three months’ imprisonment.

“But many of the arrested individuals are handed over to appropriate state authorities or social services to be safely returned to their respective home states outside Lagos. They are only conveyed in vans temporarily, and officers are also with them to ensure their safety,” the source disclosed.

Notwithstanding, there were claims by some street sellers and other business individuals who ply their trade in public places that merely seeing such vans instils fear in them.

They allege that some of the minors arrested are packed together in these vans and that this might be unconducive to their health and well-being.

We don’t keep minors, says NCoS Lagos

Reacting to the allegation, the Public Relations Officer for the Nigerian Correctional Service, Lagos State Command, Osho Onimisi, told Sunday PUNCH that the prison service does not operate Black Maria vans and does not keep minors in its facilities.

“We don’t keep minors. We have a borstal institution where they are taken. One can’t even determine who is underage from merely looking; it’s from the police station that it is determined who is underage or not. And if the case gets to the courts, the Magistrate most times knows if they are underage.

“We only work with warrants issued to us by the courts to remand. And if we sense that the person looks young, we reject them. The Nigerian Correctional Service Act 2019 gives us the right to reject them.

“The Act, under its provisions for juvenile offenders, mandates that Controllers of Corrections and Superintendents-in-charge of Custodial Centres must not admit minors (juveniles) into facilities meant for adults. Furthermore, I wish to emphasise that we don’t even use a Black Maria; it’s Green Maria,” he said.

Lagos Taskforce reacts

Also speaking with Sunday PUNCH, the Director of Public Affairs, Lagos State Taskforce, Gbadeyan Abdulraheem, refuted the claim, adding that such a claim was based on assumptions.

“You saw a Black Maria filled with teenagers; where, when, how? I am sorry, it is not the Lagos State Taskforce Black Maria. Taskforce is not the only enforcement agency that conveys suspects with Black Maria, and we have the agency’s name and logo inscribed on them.

“Other enforcement/security agencies also carry their suspects in Black Maria. Taskforce does not have the monopoly of carrying suspects in Black Maria from the point of arrest to the station for the safety of both suspects and the enforcers of laws,” Abdulraheem said.