After TheCable report, army clears ‘barrack boys’ levying road users off Lagos highway

The band of men levying road users on the Lagos-Badagry expressway have been cleared off the corridor after TheCable report exposed their activities.  The investigation revealed how a group of men identified as “barrack boys” extorted and abetted commuters flouting Lagos state ban on commercial motorcycles along the highway. The report established that the men had the backing of some soldiers to collect toll fees from bike riders and passengers. Sources informed TheCable that the extortionists worked in connivance with some soldiers attached to the Nigerian Army Cantonment, Ojo, which is located adjacent to the toll point. The “barrack boys” would order passengers who failed to pay the toll off their bikes and force them to walk about 50 meters past the cantonment gate.

When TheCable visited the highway on Wednesday, the toll point where the men extorted road users was empty, and bikes were sailing through unhindered. Ibrahim, a bike rider along the axis, told TheCable that the “barrack boys” were “pursued” by the soldiers from the cantonment. Audu, another bike rider along the axis, said although he could not remember the exact date the men were cleared off the road, it was “close to a month” since he last encountered them. However, motorcycles are still operating on the highway, and no government agency is in sight to enforce the Lagos state ban. The bikes continue to use the BRT corridor along the axis, riding on the roadside kerbs and flagrantly against the traffic at the Lagos-Badagry expressway.

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