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Fulani herdsmen are scattered all over nigeria and there have been rising cases of killings and wanton destruction of properties perpetrated by them in some parts of the South West region in recent times. Lagos State is also located in the south-western part of Nigeria on the narrow coastal flood plain of Bight of Benin. The state is bound in the north and east by Ogun State of Nigeria, in the west by the Republic of Benin, and in the south by the Atlantic Ocean. It has five administrative divisions of Ikeja, Badagry, Ikorodu, Lagos Island and Epe.

 There was a period when the cases of Fulani herdsmen attacks were on the rise, particularly at the border line between Ogun and Lagos States, at Berger, along Lagos-Ogun Expressway. Consequently, as part of measures to curtail the development, with the aim of bringing the culprits to book, government of Ogun and Lagos State, under the incumbent Governor Ibikunle Amosun and immediate past Governor Babatunde Fashola, respectively, created a joint police team to arrest the situation.

The then Lagos Police Commissioner, Umar Manko, announced that a new operational order had been released for the Lagos and Ogun Police Commands to constitute joint border patrol teams. According to Manko, “Already, we have an operational order which we are going to implement very soon, criminals around the border areas of these two states have no choice than to leave.” He said that the patrol teams would be provided with working tools and a conducive atmosphere to enhance their operations. “We don’t expect anything less than positive results from the patrol teams,” he added.

Motorists on the Lagos/Ibadan expressway have been exposed to robbery and Fulani herdsmen attacks, at specific areas such as; Sapade, Ogere and the 7-km bridge, near Lagos.

A commercial motorcyclist, popularly called  okada rider was stabbed in the stomach by two hoodlums suspected to be Fulani herdsmen on the long bridge end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. It was learnt that the victim, Mr. Owolabi Habib, had picked his assailants at Berger, Lagos, who posed as passengers. The hoodlums had told him they were going to New Kara, Ogun State, located around the long bridge. According to a source within Habib’s family: “As soon as they got near their destination and Owolabi(Habib) slowed down, one of the men pulled out a long knife and stabbed him in the stomach. “Habib told us that he abandoned his okada and fled to save himself. But the stab was so deep that his intestine came out.”

 Habib was later rushed to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital. A doctor at the centre, who  preferred anonymity said: “The wound he sustained needed intensive care. That is why he was moved to LASUTH.”

Also on July 7, 2012, a retired Brigadier-General, (retd), Sylvester Iruh, was killed on the bridge by suspected Fulani herdsmen as he was changing the tyre of his car. Iruh left Ilorin, Kwara State to return to his family in Akute, Ogun, Lagos border, only to meet his death on the long bridge.