The recent Badoo killings, a horrendous phenomenon which erupted from Ibeshe and spread to all parts of Ikorodu division and environs attracted a very negative publicity for this eastern gate way of Lagos State this year.
The barbaric killings claimed over 60 lives including entire families that were wiped out and suspected Badoo cultists who were wrongly lynched. Over 200 suspected cultists (Badoo and otherwise) were consequently arrested by combined security forces.
At the peak of the murderous group activities, residents of Ikorodu division rose up in anger calling for the head of any suspected cultist, their sponsors or their collaborators. Every resident turned into a night watch person burning tyres all night, patrolling and blowing whistle while police vans with sirens combed the areas.
Accusing fingers were pointing at different directions especially towards traditional rulers, wealthy petrol station proprietors, hotel owners and relaxation center proprietors. The situation was so volatile that the population embarked on a self-imposed curfew between 7pm and 6am each day and attacked anyone with the slightest suspicion of complicity in the killings.
One of those accused of sponsoring these Badoo killers is Fatai Omotosho Mustapha. The proprietor of the popular F1- bar along Oriya Hill/TOS Benson Beach Road, Ikorodu. Who thought it wise to publicly clear his name of any monstrous tag? He decided to grant Oriwu Sun this exclusive and explosive interview exonerating himself from every wrong labels and accusations. Enjoy the full interview below.
ORIWU SUN: Can we know you sir?
ALHAJI FATAI: My name is Alhaji Fatai Omotosho Mustapha, I hail from Offa in Offa Local Government area of Kwara State. I am from the Ajilo Family, a king making family. I am a business man and I am also into buying and selling. I have a filling station then I have a bar as well. I have been running my filling stations for more than ten years, I have one here in Ikorodu, one at Shagamu which I sold two years ago.
ORIWU SUN: What made you to go into oil and gas business and setting up a bar entertainment center, because we know you to be a contractor with Nichemtex in the past?
ALHAJI FATAI: I just felt I should diversify because I realized that contractor job cannot go on for so many years. So I decided that since I have plots of land I bought many years ago and that was how I ventured into oil and gas business. I also decided to set up a bar entertainment center because I do travel a lot, so when I travelled to Abuja and I discovered they have many entertainment centers which is not available in Ikorodu I felt that I should set up one in Ikorodu but which I never knew would become so big like what it is today.
ORIWU SUN: How were you able to get the large expanse of land?
ALHAJI FATAI: I bought my first land 18 years ago, that is where I built my filling station. Then I bought the second one 5years ago which was sponsored by Wema bank. I was buying those lands bit by bit.
ORIWU SUN: What can you say over the allegations leveled against you that you are involved in the issue of Badoo killing and cultism?
ALHAJI FATAI: What I think is happening is the work of our detractors. Initially when we started, I planned for before, what I planned for was a car wash.
What I have noticed is that people don’t believe there is God. I tell people that when they pray, God will answer their prayer and it is not until you engage in fetish practices before you can succeed. So there is nothing so special about my bar entertainment center, when you go to Lagos you will see series of bar entertainment centers which are bigger than mine. So it is the grace of God that I am enjoying and not that I am doing rituals to make money.
So, I want to tell all the people of Ikorodu that I am not a ritualist and I am not into cultism. I am always contented with what I have and even in times of fuel scarcity, I don’t inflate the price of my fuel and people can attest to that.
ORIWU SUN: Talking about security, what type of security do you have in your bar entertainment center?
ALHAJI FATAI: So far so good, we have a lot of security on ground. We have policemen, we have soldiers and we have policemen that comes from the state headquarter. we have policemen that comes from Ipakodo and Area command. Sometimes ago, I heard some saying that I am a cultist, if not they would have killed someone in my bar and I told them nothing will happen and that is why we spend a lot of money on security every time because I don’t want anything to happen. We also have scanners and bouncers and bomb scanners.
ORIWU SUN: How does your bar entertainment center operates?
ALHAJI FATAI: During weekdays from 4pm and we close by 12:00am. If you come to F1 in the morning, you cannot buy anything. We open to the public 4:00pm to 12:00am but weekends, we open by 3:00pm to 1:00am.
ORIWU SUN: What can you say about the prostitutes that patronize your bar?
ALHAJI FATAI: Actually we have stopped that because before, we do see most of them loitering around the bar but I called the Ipakodo Police Division and informed them. But for now, we don’t have prostitutes there because they have vanished.
ORIWU SUN: What is your advice to the people of Ikorodu?
ALHAJI FATAI: My advice to the people of Ikorodu and the whole world is that they should know that F1 is a law abiding citizen and F1 bar is a law abiding entity with sole aim of entertaining Nigerians. They should feel free to come to F1 because they are well protected and in safe hands.
ORIWU SUN: Why has F1 bar entertainment center attracted a lot of people because when you pass through the place at night, there is always huge crowd?
ALHAJI FATAI: What attracted a lot of people to F1 is the location, easy accessibility, easy exit, proximity, large expanse of parking space which is monitored on surveillance and physical monitoring all the time (CCTV) cum quality service. When you come to a place that is secured, it will always be an attraction because people going there will feel more secured and have that sense of belongings. So the convenience/quality service is what attracted people there.
The rumors been said now are rumors that have not been substantiated by one single individual. The people just see it that this bar is succeeding, Nigerians are people that loves enjoyment and people like to enjoy themselves in an environment where they feel secured and people feel relaxed when they come to F1. The other allegations that flew into the air sometimes ago was that when they come to F1 they go and commit after leaving F1. The accusation is baseless because anybody can leave his or her house to go and commit an atrocity, so we don’t need to be saying when people leave F1, they go and commit. We do scan people before they enter into the bar and arms are prohibited. We have group of intelligent people working with us at F1.
People have failed to realize that Ikorodu is gradually emerging to be the heartbeat of Lagos State, given the population, given the geographical location. I can confidently say that it is the biggest part of Lagos State as it is now. I have introduced innovation into the bar entertainment business in Ikorodu, before now what we use to have in Ikorodu were beer parlours. Presently we have over 120 staff in the bar and we have over 30 staff in the filling station alone who are professionals and we are always striving to provide the best for customers. People make comments when they come to F1 and F1 has actually lifted the glory of Ikorodu beyond the immediate boundary of Ikorodu. People travel as far as Lekki, Sangotedo, Badagry to come to F1 but because of the inactivity of Ikorodu, some people who refuse to change with time believes nothing successful can take place in Ikorodu without being involved in cultism and rituals and that there must be some diabolical means attached to it.
ORIWUSUN – You have been here for the past 40 years, married an Ijebu woman, you are also a stakeholder in Ikorodu. Give us your own perception of this Badoo issue, how did we come to this stage in Ikorodu because we have never had this type of situation and why is it that anytime we have issues like this, they start accusing people who have filling stations, hotels, entertainment centers and recently they started accusing the traditional rulers of being the sponsors of this Badoo issues and lastly your recommendation on this issue so that Ikorodu can be more peaceful.
ALHAJI FATAI – Before now, Ikorodu used to be a peaceful area where anybody can come in, until lately when we started having problem with these people that calls themselves Badoo cultists. What is happening is that an average Ikorodu man believes a person cannot be successful without using some diabolical means and whenever they see a successful man, they say they are ritualists. I was detained for four days sometimes ago when the police came to my house and asked that Alhaji, where is your shrine? When they checked my room they didn’t see anything.
In recent time, Ikorodu has not been in good news. There was a time when we had issue of militants and it was a high level criminality. Ikorodu as well have been so bad in this issue of Land grabbing. Looking at the issue of badoo, it is the trend of crime which the police and other security agencies have to sit down and strategize. The terrain where the badoo is happening is not motorable and some of them are not even accessible. If you look at the sketch of Ikorodu, you will see that when somebody retires from work or loses his job somewhere, used the little money given to him to build a small house in Ikorodu. they need in Ikorodu is for government and the traditional rulers within Ikorodu to sit down and draw a sketch of Ikorodu and create city intelligence.
It is only a coordinated community based intelligence that can help. So many idle citizens are in Ikorodu and tomorrow you see him driving a flashy car and you are not asking.
A lot of things has to be done by the government. The government needs to give more attention to Ikorodu, the perception they are giving to Ikorodu now is what would have been relevant 15 to 20 years ago. People in authority failed to realize that Ikorodu has grown significantly beyond everybody’s expectation. You need to go to Ikorodu Garage and see the mammoth crowd, you need to go as far as far as Ewu-Elepe, you need to go to Agric, you need to go to Ebute, Ibeshe and even to Imota and Adamo to see the population that is there. The truth is that as the population is growing, the government has not given Ikorodu the needed attention and that is why some people feel that they can do whatever they like in Ikorodu because Ikorodu is not under watch.
They need to realize that because of the population, more than 50 percent of people living in Lagos now are in Ikorodu axis because this is the only place where you can get affordable land, build and live. The truth is that as Ikorodu is growing, the government is not growing along with it.
ORIWUSUN – What is your relationship with Oba of Ibeshe land, Be-Happy filling station and Abayomi Alaka?
ALHAJI FATAI – I’ve never met Oba one-on-one. The only time we met was at the police headquarters and that was where I also met Be-Happy but I’ve never met with Alaka.