Group tackles KAI officials over harassment

Today, if you ask an average trader in Lagos State who constitutes a greater nightmare between the members of the Nigeria Police and the Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) Brigade, he or she will definitely waste no time in pointing at the latter. And the reason is not far-fetched. It is generally believed that the organization’s existence has become a torn in the flesh of traders in Lagos State, given that they now act in total violation of the Statutory Act setting them up.  

Thirteen years after the establishment of the KAI Brigade in Lagos State, the officers, instead of maintaining law and order, are now law unto themselves.

Last Saturday, a bloody clash between members of the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) and the KAI Brigade was averted by providence, when the KAI officials allegedly attacked the SPN members at Oshodi while distributing leaflets, which the Brigade considered offensive to the state.

It was gathered that the leaflets were critical to the anti-poor policies of the Action Congress of Nigeria( ACN) government in Lagos as well as the misrule of other political parties, including the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The group said the attack on her members took place when they were distributing leaflets, manifesto, constitution and Socialist Democracy, a bi-monthly newspaper of the Party, and were interacting with people on the streets.

In a petition dated June 28, 2013 and made available to Daily Newswatch, Chinedu Bosah, the Lagos State Protean Chairman, said, “After an hour that we had set the stand, officials of the Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) became angry, having discovered that the materials we were circulating was critical of the ACN and Lagos State government. They claimed we were supposed to get permit from the Lagos State government before setting up a stall and sharing the leaflets. But we countered them. They ordered us to leave and threatened to disrupt our stall. Luckily, we had already started rounding off the activities when they came. Otherwise, we would have called their bluff. We, however, still challenged their authority to prevent circulation of leaflets in Oshodi or elsewhere in Lagos.”

He further stated that the officials of KAI, after leaving their stand, went on to start hurling loaves of bread from under the table of a newspaper vendor.

This, according to him, was after the KAI officers had pounced on a bread vendor and carried away her tray containing loaves of bread.

“It was a sigh of pity for the poor victims, though not a shocking scene to the people around. The KAI operatives under the cover of enforcement of some obnoxious, anti-poor environmental law harass traders and loot their wares on a daily basis,” he disclosed.       

According to the group, KAI officers seem to have abandoned their primary assignments and have become thugs in the hands of some politicians

 “In between elections, KAI operatives harass poor traders and hawkers and confiscate their wares, which are shared amongst themselves. It is a case of the Lagos State government recruiting the poorest in the society and setting them against other poor people.

 “No doubt, the activities of KAI have become more vicious, authoritarian and criminal in the last six years. All kinds of crudity and absurdity are embedded in KAI activities. They embark on forceful arrest and sometimes subject their victims to crude and undemocratic trials. For instance, poor traders, hawkers and beggars are usually arraigned before a mobile court for trial without fair trial and are instantly sentenced to prison or are fined,” the petition further stated.

SPN decried the activities of KAI, which takes place every day on the streets of Lagos State, as they arrest and put people on trial under kangaroo court system.

The group said people are usually never given opportunities to defend themselves or prepare their defense before they are summarily sentenced.

“This shows how crude, undemocratic and anti-poor the Fashola-led ACN government is, despite its pretences, tokenism and grandstanding.

“These KAI operatives don’t restrict their activities to stealing and hooliganism; they also kill. As reported in the PM newspaper of January 20, 2012, two KAI officials (Taiwo Fashola, 52 and Musiliu Ismaila, 45) and others were alleged to have killed one 24-year-old Okaja Ahamefula, a street trader, on 28 August, 2011,” the petition also revealed.

The SPN, in their petition, called for urgent end to the harassment, attacks, undemocratic and crude arraignment of innocent poor people of Lagos State before what it called a “black market court”.

 “We are equally also demanding the scrapping of KAI operation in Lagos,” Bosah quipped.

Investigation showed that the Brigade before now had been orderly under Mr. Kehinde Oyenuga, a retired Assistant Commissioner of Police, who was appointed as the first Marshal General of the Brigade.

When his appointment was terminated in 2004, he was succeeded by Navy Commando Femi Lawson and Captain Danjuma Maigeri( rtd.) was appointed as the deputy, KAI Marshal General, to Lawson during the period.

 Lawson left office as the KAI Marshal General in 2005 and his then deputy, Maigeri, was appointed the KAI Marshal General to succeed him.

Daily Newswatch gathered that the Brigade was later disbanded by the then governor of Lagos State, His Excellency Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in October 2004 and the current KAI Brigade was re-lunched   on August 1, 2005 by the same governor.  Maigeri was appointed as the KAI Marshal General (KMG).

There are grievous allegations against KAI Brigade, the law enforcement unit of the Lagos State Ministry of the Environment. The group has been accused of auctioning of items allegedly confiscated from traders operating illegally in parts of the state.

 The auction, which normally holds at the Headquarters of the Brigade, is being allegedly handled by licensed auctioneers and attended by a large number of members of the public who were interested in buying the items. But it was learnt that some of the items are usually bought by the officials.

  According to the officials, the exercise is in compliance with the directive of the governor of the state, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, through the Commissioner of the Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello, that all the goods confiscated by the KAI Magistrate court be auctioned six months after judgment had been delivered.

 Most of the confiscated items usually auctioned are electronics such as standing fans, pressing irons, CD players, TV sets, clothes, shoes, phones, carpets and generating sets, amongst others.

KAI Brigade has, in the past years, demolished and sacked illegal street traders and hawkers at Obalende, Ikoyi, Victoria Island and Lekki areas of Lagos.

Over 5000 traders have been arrested by the Brigade since its inception in 2003 while the Brigade has also carried out actions at Obalende; Awolowo Road; Falomo under Bridge and on top of the Bridge; Bourdillon Road, Ikoyi; Ahmadu Bello Road; Ozumba Mbadiwe; Akin-Adesola; Adeola Odeku and Adetokunbo Ademola, all in Victoria Island. Even so, virtually all the mainland areas have fallen under the shooting pains of KAI.

The arrested traders have been charged to the mobile magistrate court. While some Lagos residents expressed appreciation to KAI for sanitizing some areas, many equally saw the organization as machinery of under-development.

 It was established on November 3, 2003 by the then governor of the State Asiwaju Bola Hamed Tinubu.

The Brigade was established to enforce effect change of attitude and promote clean and hygienic culture among the people of Lagos State; oversee the environmental sanitation law of Lagos State.

Among their responsibilities was to ensure that the state is kept clean by eliminating indiscriminate dumping of refuse in unauthorized places and eliminating all forms of street- trading and hawking.

Also, they were to see that vegetal nuisances and overgrown weeds around premises were weeded out; stop open defecation and urination in public places and kick against illegal buildings or structures on drainage alignments, road setbacks and verges, among other forms of environmental hazards.