Area boys
Area Boys is the common name for groups of mostly juvenile criminals in the Nigerian city of Lagos .
activities
The Area Boys have been common in Lagos since the early 1980s. Due to the large influx of immigrants from other parts of the country, there are many unemployed young people in Lagos who can be taken in by the Area Boys. The association not only has male members, as the name implies, but also female members. The Area Boys defend their territory with threats and often with violence and concentrate on bus stops, larger streets and markets. Their offenses include collecting fees for the use of public goods and extorting protection money . Some politicians were also accused of paying Area Boys to intimidate the opposing parties. In October 2000, Area Boys took part in ethnic clashes between Hausa and Yoruba that claimed around 100 lives.
State intervention
The government has made various attempts in the past to reintegrate the Area Boys into society. Area boys were recruited to do road works. Ibrahim Babangida , Nigerian President from 1985 to 1993, founded a bank that provided microloans , but failed in the 1990s. A program initiated by Bola Tinubu , the governor of the state of Lagos from 1999 to 2007, provides that area boys complete a training course on an unused prison island in the Lagos lagoon, upon completion of which they receive a diploma and a job placement. In return, the former Area Boys have to leave Lagos.
In May 2005, the military raided various parts of Lagos for two weeks after a group of Area Boys stabbed a soldier who prevented them from blackmailing a bus driver. According to newspaper reports, dozens of area boys were killed in the clashes; more than 200 were handed over to the police. The activities of the Area Boys then decreased temporarily.
causes
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime , the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime, sees the cause of the spread of the Area Boys in “a complex play of forces of socio-economic deprivation and difficulties that the youth of the long urban centers and the According to his country study, the threats of violence or persuasion, petty crime and sometimes violent crimes of the Area Boys in business and metropolitan areas were mainly aimed at getting hold of money; they worried civil society and opposed state authority. The study also highlights the role of substance abuse as a cause of the Area Boys' criminal behavior.
Parallels
There are groups of petty criminals in many major Nigerian cities. In Ibadan , too , a criminal organization that controls the informal market is sometimes called Area Boys . In no other city are they considered as ubiquitous as in Lagos.
The Bakassi Boys, whose names are similar to the Area Boys, in the southeastern states of Nigeria are also being prosecuted by the government on charges of vigilantism , although they basically pursue police activities against the population.
swell
- ↑ a b c d "Area Boys - a growing menace on the streets of Lagos" , July 13, 2005
- ↑ IRIN : "Security services deemed unprepared to stop election violence" , March 28, 2007
- ↑ BBC News : "Lagos calm after city center riots" , October 18, 2000
- ↑ Chris Ngwodo: "Area Boys: Menace to Society" ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), July 2004
- ↑ UNODC Country Office Nigeria: "Drug Related Criminality" ( Memento of June 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), 2003