“These people are heartless and mean. You need to see what they did to my friend. I was complaining about mine until I saw his. Mine was that they smashed my windscreen and made away with my laptop, ipad, phones and the little cash I had on me. But he was battered.
They slashed him with machete after they had dispossessed him of his belongings,” said a banker, Funmilayo Aboderin, who leaves her home at 5am every day for work. Funmi, who drives a Toyota Corolla saloon car, was lamenting her ordeals in the hands of these ‘under-bridge’ and ‘traffic boys’ until she encountered another scene of robbery, where her old school friend, Dayo, was slashed with machete after he was dispossessed of his possessions, that she got hold of herself. According to her, Dayo, whose belongings were carted away by these early morning thieves and robbers early January, got some machete cuts from the daredevils.
The incident took place at about 17 minutes to 6am, around Orile area of Lagos. These and many more were the plights of Lagosians before Nigerian Police Force and Lagos State Government swung into action to quell the situation.
Today, the police are now seen patrolling the Lagos highways and some bridges in the city where the acts are perpetuated. Before now, the most vulnerable areas were Ijora, Mile 2, Onikan, Costain, Eko Bridge, Third Mainland Bridge, Mushin, Obalende, CMS, Oshodi Oke and Isale, Iyana Oworo, Obalende, Bonny camp, Muson Bridge, Apongbon, Maryland and Cele in Lagos.
Most affected were workers in the state, who leave their houses early in the morning in a bid to beat the routine traffic situation in the city and get to their offices in good time. Smashing of windscreen and dispossessing commuters’ of valuables at gun point was the order of the day. But despite the joint action of the Police and state government, these robbers still operate in some areas of Lagos, inflicting pains and fears on the residents. Thus, the fear of uncertainty has made some Lagosians to avoid certain routes very early in the morning and late night.
“I don’t leave my house any more until I’m able to see the face of the next person. Many things are happening here. They rape women, collect their phones, beat people up and the worse still, there is no security operative that will be there to save you,” said one Mrs. Nweke Sylvia, who lives around Masalasi, Old Ojo Road, Lagos.
It’s no longer news that motorists and road users in the ever-busy ‘Centre of Excellence’ are going through a very difficult spell. Asides the unending traffic snarls that have overtaken most of the highways and inner roads and left traffic controllers bewildered, traffic robbers and robberies have been added to the unfortunate scenario. In the past, these daredevils attacked their victims early in the morning or very late at night or when victims’ cars break down in lonely spots. They graduated to stealing at all hours of the day with all manners of dangerous weapons.
However, the current administration of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has further responded to this issue by procuring patrol vehicles, helicopters and rebranded Rapid Respond Squad (RSS) under the headship of Assistant Commissioner of Police to fight the crime in the state.
Today, Third Mainland Bridge and other areas of the state with high robbery cases are well patrolled by police vans while other policemen on motorbikes patrol the state’s highways, streets and hinterlands. But this, also, has not completely wiped out crime as there are still pockets of crime in the state. Preye Johnson, a resident of 512 Road, Festac, is a postgraduate student at the Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo. One day, he was on his way home from Barracks, where he went visiting a friend, but on getting to Alakija, there was a brief traffic.
While he was sitting in his car in the traffic, he was approached by a gun-bearing young man, who pretended to be a beggar. According to him, he came begging for alms but when Preye didn’t succumb to the robber’s overture, he brandished a pistol. He narrated: “One night at about 7, I was coming from Barracks. On getting to Alakija to enter FESTAC, there was a mild traffic. That night, I was very angry because my girlfriend just wasted my time on a date that cost me a fortune. When I was in that traffic, a guy came to my windscreen and knocked, pretended to be a beggar but I didn’t pay attention to him and he showed me a gun.
“When I saw the gun, I didn’t know what pushed me and I acted as if I was trying to get my own gun by the side of my chair. The moment I did that, the traffic moved a bit, I moved and hit the vehicle in my front so as to attract attention to what was happening. I was honking my horn endlessly.
“It was a strategy. The man came down and the armed robber quietly disappeared and I pleaded with the man and told him what had happened. He understood and of course, he wouldn’t want to argue with me there because it could be dangerous.” Another victim, Ejiofor Okolie, said: “I saw them through my side mirror on one occasion, as I was driving along Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, precisely at Otto Wharf under bridge, but there was nothing I could do. When they approached me, I resisted them but luck was not on my side.
My windscreen was smashed. They made away with my laptop and phones, including my camera. Two of my colleagues that were onboard shared the same fate with me. “It was terrible, if I had pepper spray with me, it would have been safer for me. One needs to get one form of weapon for selfdefence or the other but the problem is that when you get these things, one might be risking police interrogation and harassment.
They might tell you that it’s illegal for civilians to carry certain weapons but the city is driving everybody to take this decision.” Again, on the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, it’s the same fate. In most cases, robbers are the ones that will constitute an artificial traffic and the moment they have accomplished their mission, they dispersed immediately.
At under the bridge, Trade Fair Complex, they snatch bags and valuables from people early in the morning and late night even as the Army barracks is situated at close by. Joy Eshikenha works on the Island and lives on the mainland. She said after falling victim twice to traffic robbers, she decided to be leaving her car at home and start taking public transport.
A few weeks after the decision, she was attacked on the road linking Costain and Eko Bridge in broad daylight by a gang of machete and gun wielding robbers. According to her, she and two other men with her jumped from the bus into a ditch. She started calling the Lagos State emergency numbers. She received no answer till the robbers came to where they were and snatched her phone. She was thankful that she wasn’t harmed but wondered why such menace could not be curbed by the government.
“It appears these robbers had marked me. I have been robbed three times within the space of a few months. Am I the only one on the road?” she asked resentfully. Recently, Mutiat Mohammed was robbed on Oshodi Bridge at night due to a gridlock on the road. This has made her to start avoiding the route at night. According to her, it pays her to follow a longer but safer route.
They collected her phones and bangles. “I have been hearing about things that are happening on the Third Main Land Bridge. So, when I had a vehicle breakdown, I had to leave my vehicle there and fled with the next available vehicle. I didn’t want to be robbed or forced to jump into the lagoon, so I had to save my life first before any sad story.
It was the following day that I went for my car. Nothing happened to it,” said Tolani Odunsola, who works on the Island. Apart from the traffic robbers, there is a notorious gang that operates around FESTAC, Satellite Town and Apapa. They are called ‘One Million Boys.’ They move in a group of about 50 robbers. They bear guns but their major weapons are machetes, clubs and knives. In some cases, when they want to attack people’s houses, they send letters to that effect and honour their letters
. These gangs attack people on the roads, streets and houses. They have joined other early morning thieves who snatch hand bags from ladies going to work. Some of them ambush bank customers, with a view of stealing from them.
They operate on motorcycles. They pretend to be commercial bike operators (Okada riders) and when you onboard, you are robbed midway. “Since they snatched my wife’s handbag, I started seeing her off to the park every morning before going to work. From my gate to the bus stop is like five poles but these guys rode up on an Okada and snatched her handbag. Climbing Okada early in morning and late night in FESTAC is becoming a suicide as you have above 80 per cent chances of being robbed,” said Adebowale Sunday.
At Mushin, a gang of two on a bike followed one tricycle and snatched a lady’s purse, cell phones and fled. But while the tricycle pursued them, they were knocked down by an oncoming vehicle. They quickly got up and ran away while passersby were sympathising with them. But the moment the tricycle driver got close to the scene and said what happened, the sympathizers pursued them to no avail. When they didn’t get them, they resorted to burning their Okada after they had collected all the phones they had in their bag. Joseph Adewale, a printer, said: “As I was going home one morning like that, at about, 7, two boys on a bike stopped and collected a lady’s handbag after firing three times.
They didn’t want to use the gun before but boys were trying to stop them, then, they brought out their gun to scatter the mob, which was ready to attack them.” According to him, another lady was robbed in front of a bank in FESTAC. “They followed her immediately and grabbed her bag as soon as she came out. They made away with her N450, 000. I wasn’t a funny experience. The woman was wailing,” he said. Mrs. Olufunke Ayodele also narrated how a hawker robbed her colleague at gunpoint earlier in the week.
The hawker had been persuading the victim to buy his wares. When she refused, he showed her a gun placed under his carton of goods and ordered her to roll her glass down. He robbed her of her phones and laptop and strolled away quietly, looking for his next victim.
Many people have fallen victim to robberies in this manner. Mr. Yemi Agboola recounted how he was robbed at Iyana Oworo, while returning from work – a short distance from some policemen. He noted that everybody was just facing his business as if they were oblivious to his plight. He believed that had the policemen been effectively patrolling the vicinity as they were supposed to, the robbers might have been deterred. However, in an earlier media chat with the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni on this issue, he stated that the Rapid Response Squad of the Lagos State Police Command has arrested over 20 such traffic robbers in different parts of the state.
He said: “Note that some of the traffic robbers have moved from the traditional areas. They only cash in on the opportunity of a breakdown of vehicle and since these criminals are mobile, they just do a stint and disappear. It’s a challenge for us to nab them because we cannot predict when you will have a breakdown and traffic will build up immediately. “But that is not to say that it’s insurmountable because some of them that have been arrested have given us useful information.
They have a headquarters from where they are sent out. And that is why we have also resorted to working under the disguise of selling pure water and gala.” He continued: “You will agree with me that there are many patrol vehicles everywhere. Once there is traffic, there are policemen moving up and down. They are often in motorcycles. But because of lack of discipline, motorists don’t allow them (the police) to move between vehicles.
The policemen are called traffic monitors and last week, we injected about 20 of them. “You find out that rather than go and make a U-turn, they drive against traffic so that they can monitor things. But Nigerians don’t understand that. Even if you make a distress call to the police, because the road is blocked, it’s a problem getting to those areas. There are other measures we are taking that I can’t say, so it won’t jeopardise our operations.”
Also, the Police Public Relations Officer, Dolapo Badmus, urged Lagosians be calm and relaxed, saying that patrol teams are doing their jobs. “There is no need for anybody to run away as the police are working. I can assure you that everybody is safe in any part of the state that he is residing. For some security reasons, I will not let out our strategies to the public but we are doing our best.”
However, the State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Steve Ayorinde, said the state has launched three helicopters and two gunboats to fight crime in the state, saying that crime has reduced by six per cent in the state. “The State government is rolling out more equipment to reduce crime to barest minimum before the first anniversary of this administration, which comes May,” he added.
