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Community appeals to LASG over Monkeys invasion

Published

6 years ago

March 26, 2018

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Residents of Soluyi Sosanya community in Gbagada area of Lagos have appealed to the Lagos state government to save their community from the invasion of a tribe of monkeys.

Speaking on the invasion, Chairman of the community’s landlord association, Adigun Olaleye, said it had become difficult for the community to curtail the monkeys and their destructive attitude.

He said the invasion might have resulted from the nearness of the community to a swamp forest that separated the community from Ifako area.

According to him, the monkeys come into residences at any time including early morning and gain entrance into rooms even if the houses are locked. He said the community had written a letter to the Lagos state ministry of agriculture as regards the situation but had yet to get a relief.

“They said we would have to pay for them to come and pack the monkeys,” he said.

He said that the invasion had been on for years but recently became unbearable. Olaleye appealed to the state government to urgently intervene.

Narrating her ordeal, a journalist who lives in the community, Funmilola Gboteku, said the monkeys had forced her family to flee.

“Many times, these monkeys come to the neighbourhood to destroy our property. Once they see food items inside a house, they direct all their energies at gaining entrance forcefully,” she said.

Another resident, Gabriel Omopariwa, said he was tired of the destructive attitude of the monkeys and had tried to look for ways to stop them, to no avail.

“On several occasions, these monkeys have destroyed our kitchen nets to gain entrance and steal food items. Several traps have been set to capture and kill these demonic animals to no avail,” he said.

Joshua Folowosele, a landlord, said that the monkeys entered his wife’s shop on many occasions to eat gala, biscuits and other foods.

“We have tried to poison them on many occasions, but those monkeys are too smart; once they perceive the smell of the food, they usually detect it has been poisoned. Some of them have been killed with guns, but we cannot keep shooting in a residential area; it is very risky.”

Another landlord, Oluwatosin Aregbesola, said his tenants were no longer feeling safe in the house because of the monkeys. “The monkeys enter kitchens to eat our soups and any foodstuff on the shelf,” he said.

“The day I tried to catch one of them, the monkey attacked me by using its long nails to punch a hole on my neck and scratch my face.”