Who are Third Mainland Bridge thugs remitting to?

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here is hardly a motorist in Lagos who has not had the harrowing experience of confronting the thugs that always crawl out of nowhere on the popular Third Mainland Bridge, the longest of three Lagos bridges connecting Lagos Island to the mainland.

In fact, the tales of woes always range from the ridiculous to the outright daunting. God forbid your vehicle breaks down somewhere on the bridge; these weird-looking punks must be paid before you are allowed to fix or tow your vehicle from the spot.

And their charges? Ridiculously variable. I suspect that the thugs will size you up, and that determines how much money finds its way out of your pocket. If you refuse to pay, they threaten to throw you into the water from the bridge.

This activity has been going on for so long in Lagos that one continues to wonder: for such crime to exist this long, the thugs must have powerful backing.

How can such harassment continue to thrive when we have security agencies stationed at both ends of the bridge?

I was once a victim of these thugs.

On my way to an important meeting sometime around November 2023, my vehicle suddenly swerved and crashed into the barrier in the middle of the bridge twice. (You can read the details here.)

Of course, I was thoroughly shocked after the same barrier brought the vehicle to an abrupt stop, and thank God the oncoming vehicles were miraculously able to stop in time without crashing into me because my Sienna stopped right in the middle of the road!

Anyway, with the help of one or two people, I was able to push the vehicle off the road to the kerb. I also waved down a towing vehicle I saw in the traffic that had gathered due to the accident.

After I negotiated with the tow driver and turned to appreciate the guys for their help, I received the first shocker. One of those guys demanded ₦40,000 as payment for the help they rendered.

I was taken aback and questioned why that was. He informed me that there was no way I would be allowed to leave without paying such an outrageous amount unless I was ready to be a visitor to the fishes in the water because he was going to push me over the bridge.

Many Lagosians can relate to this experience. Another victim, a saxophonist and fashion designer, recently shared his ordeal on social media, addressing Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.

“Dear @jidesanwoolu, People’s cars can’t develop faults on 3MB without thugs in their numbers—4, 5, 6—gathering and asking for a huge sum of money, and they are ready to push them into the ocean if they do not comply,” he wrote.

He described how thugs gather in numbers to demand large sums from motorists with broken-down vehicles, threatening to push them into the ocean if they do not comply.

“How is this even happening, for Christ’s sake???”

He questioned the lack of security personnel monitoring the bridge and highlighted the ongoing loss of lives due to these activities.

“Are there no security personnel on 3MB to monitor the activities around there? Do you know how many lives have been lost due to this? This should not be happening in a sane state. Please do something. This has been happening for years, and yet it keeps happening,” he stated.

Many other Lagosians can corroborate these allegations and are calling on the relevant authorities, especially the chief security officer of the state, to do something about this.