As Lagos Descends Into Crime

•Some suspected kidnappers paraded with armed robbery suspects in Lagos.

•Some suspected kidnappers paraded with armed robbery suspects in Lagos.

•Some suspected kidnappers paraded with armed robbery suspects in Lagos.
•FILE PHOTO: Some suspected kidnappers paraded with armed robbery suspects in Lagos.

Lagosians are worried that criminals are gradually creeping back into the mega city after they were sent packing by law enforcement agencies a couple of years ago. If the criminals are not robbing motorists in traffic jams, they are robbing banks or kidnapping people and demanding for ransom. It is difficult to fathom who could be responsible for the sudden upsurge in crime in the city.

It was with shock that residents of the state heard about the kidnap of Toyin, the wife of the Deputy Managing Director of The Sun Newspapers, Mr. Steve Nwosu, in the early hours of Monday, 14 September. The unidentified gunmen broke into their Okota home in Lagos and after holding the entire family hostage at gun point, ransacked everywhere and demanded for money before taking the hapless woman away by speed boat through a canal opposite their residence.

This is happening to Nwosu who was shot in the head by robbers a few years ago when he went to withdraw some money from a bank in Festac Town, a suburb of Lagos. Doctors battled to save his life after that gruesome attack. Now kidnappers of his wife are demanding for N100 million ransom before they could free the woman. Where do the kidnappers expect a journalist and an employee in a media organisation to get that kind of money? They must set the woman free unconditionally. If they don’t, law enforcement agencies must do everything humanly possible to free Toyin unharmed.

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It is unthinkable that in spite of the great efforts the state government led by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode is making to combat crime through donation of patrol vehicles and other equipment to the police, criminals are causing residents of the state immense discomfort and fear. This could negatively impact the desire of the state government to attract investment into the state.

Crime at this period of the year is usually at its peak and as such security agencies have to step up their game and be ahead of the criminals at all times. We ask the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, to prod his men into action to curb activities of criminals in the state. This is not the time for crime fighters to sleep or slumber as desperate criminals go to any length at this period of the year to carry out their nefarious activities.

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