The Lagos State Police Command has paraded 118 individuals who have been detained around the state on suspicion of being involved in street violence, cultism, armed robbery, murder, kidnapping, vandalism, illegal firearm possession, and other criminal acts.
The Commissioner of Police, Fatai Tijani, told reporters as he paraded the suspects on Wednesday that the arrests were the result of coordinated searches around Lagos’s designated crime hotspots and ongoing intelligence-led operations.
Emmanuel Ogbu, 38, was one of those paraded; he allegedly admitted to going back to cult activities after serving a jail sentence for a similar offense in 2018.
The police claim that his case is a part of a larger trend of recidivism that they are monitoring.
The command revealed that 58 suspects connected to street violence, phone snatching, armed attacks, and harassment of residents inside the Lekki axis were apprehended as a result of a series of coordinated operations conducted on April 27, 2026, in the Ilasan, Lekki, and Maroko areas.
According to police, the suspects allegedly worked in gangs, preying on gullible people, particularly in traffic areas. They were charged with robbing victims of their belongings and cell phones before escaping the scene.
Eleven locally made Beretta handguns, one cut-to-size handgun, one regular Beretta handgun, two Dane guns, nine telecom power batteries, four cutlasses, one knife, twenty-one bags of suspected Indian hemp, various charms, and other evidence of guilt were found on the accused.
In a related development, the police reported that they had detained two individuals in relation to a kidnapping operation in the Lucy Fibre neighborhood of Ikorodu: Tony Ekwane Oghanetega, 21, and Elijah Emmanuel, 23.
Thomson Omokhafe Adams, 17, was kidnapped and killed on April 22, 2026, according to investigators.
The command added that questioning connected the same suspects to another kidnapping and murder incident that was documented on November 30, 2025, in which a female victim was purportedly killed following a ransom of N300,000 had been collected.
The police commissioner also briefed on a separate investigation into the theft of over 650 telecom power assets between 2025 and 2026.
He said that the investigation resulted in the arrest of Orji Emeka in Ikeja, who allegedly guided investigators to Alausa, where Obiagwu Kingsley was also taken into custody. Oluwatosin Sani, another suspect, was detained in the Gbogbo neighborhood of Ikorodu, and nine telecom power batteries were found on him.
The command also reported the arrest of 20 suspects connected to cult-related violence and armed robbery on Lagos Island on April 20, 2026, and eight suspected cultists during a raid in Iwaya on April 22, 2026.
The suspects are thought to be members of rival fraternities, such as the Aiye and Eiye organizations, and were allegedly involved in violent altercations and attacks that were documented earlier in April, according to the police.
According to Tijani, investigations are ongoing and guaranteed that all suspects would be charged to court upon conclusion of interrogations and forensic analysis.
