30th April, 2013
The spate of criminalities, including armed robbery, in Lagos State, seems to be on geometric rise
The recent abduction of the Chairman, Ejigbo Local Council Development Area, LCDA, Kehinde Bamigbetan, underscores the worsening insecurity in Lagos State. Bamigbetan, who, at the time of the incident, was retiring to his house at about 11 p.m, only regained freedom five days later. Bamigbetan later claimed his abductors were magnanimous not to have killed him, which was the motive they alluded.
In an interview he granted our sister publication, P.M.NEWS, a few hours after his release, Bamigbetan, a former Chief Press Secretary to former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, said, “they (the kidnappers) claimed that somebody had paid for my life”. Although, the kidnappers were initially reported to have demanded $1million ransom, the council boss did not disclose how much was eventually paid to them to secure his release.
The incident merely included the many reported cases of ransom kidnappings, which hitherto was novel to residents of the state. A security source in one of the foreign missions in Lagos told the magazine that multinational companies, which had thought the state was safe from kidnappers, would rather have their expatriate staff reside outside the state. The rising kidnap cases in the state clearly reinforces that fear. The kidnap of a British businessman, on 23 March, as well as three Lebanese businessmen, few days after, all on Victoria Island, are visible signs of worsening security sitution. The Briton, like the Lebanese, who were later identified as Mohammad Haidar, Ali Matar and Karim Matar, was later released in a manner consistent with kidnappers’ money-for-freedom tactics. Similarly, on 28 March, kidnappers abducted an unidentified woman who was jogging on Admiralty Way, Lekki Peninsula (Phase I) Estate. However, kidnap for ransom is not the only crime residents have had to live with.
The most disturbing is the sheer increase in armed robbery, especially bank raids. The devilry of the robbers in many of the reported cases appeared to give a portrayal of a state under siege. Recently, armed robbers, with dynamites and other explosive devices, attacked a new generation bank along College Road, Ogba. On 13 March, a raid at the otherwise secured International Wing of the Murtala Mohammed Airport, MMA, Ikeja, was a chilling testimony of robbers’ effrontery.
According to reports, some heavily armed robbers at about past 9 p.m attacked illegal Bureau de Change operators at the car park section of the airport. The robbers reportedly engaged some policemen in a gun duel that lasted about 30 minutes, leading to the death of two cops and a robber. The hit, like a similar one made by the gang in February 2012, at the same place, was said to have yielded millions in hard currency notes.
Between 12 and 13 January, residents of Aguda, Oyingbo and Ajah were at the mercy of armed robbers in separate operations. About nine persons, including six policemen, reportedly lost their lives to the attacks. At Oyingbo, the robbers were said to have stormed the residence of a businesswoman, identified as Alhaja Olohun Orerun, on Redemption Way, in the dead of the night. Before making away with their victims’ valuables, they riddled the house with bullets and shot at a Police patrol vehicle parked close to the crime scene, killing the driver, Corporal Moroof. Two days after the horrific incident, four cops, said to be responding to a distress call, were ambushed and killed by robbers at Ajah. Before killing the policemen, they had killed a businesswoman, who was said to have recognised and called one of them by his name.
On 10 February, another gang of robbers stormed the residence of a foreign national at Apapa, where they killed two soldiers and shattered another’s leg with bullets. The location of the victim’s residence, which shared a fence with the Nigerian Army Command Guest House, did not deter the robbers. It was said that the slain soldiers had responded to gun shots and, while opening the gate to know what was amiss, were fired at by the robbers.
Besides armed robbery and kidnappings, inter-gang clashes and cultism have gained ascendancy too. The trend which appeared to have been exported from campuses of tertiary institutions to the various neighbourhoods, has constantly compromised the safety of residents of the affected places. Some of the notorious neighbourhoods, where supremacist battles have intermittently sprung, included Mosalasi, Olosa, Fadeyi, Bariga, Ojuelegba, Love Garden and Ojo.
On 18 March, Adeolu Otenaike, a 400-level student of the North American University, the Republic of Benin, was mowed down at Jibowu by suspected street-based cultists, said to be members of the Eeiye Confraternity. The group was said to have killed Otenaike to avenge the death of one of its members, who was killed by the Buccaneers Confraternity earlier. Two days after Otenaike’s death, the Chairman, Tricycle Operators (Surulere Zone), Lekan Lawal, was assassinated at Ibidun Street, Itire Road, also, by suspected cult members. A month before, Olaniyan Damilola, musician otherwise known as Damoche, was killed by a cult group in front of the gate of the Lagos State University. Until their arrest, a notorious group, One Million Boys, terrorised residents of Olodi Apapa and Ajegunle to bitter submission.
Despite the efforts by the Lagos State Government, which created the Security Trust Fund, at confronting armed robbery, the crime has grown geometrically. The state government has relentlessly equipped the Police by providing vehicles and other operational apparatuses.
The frightening devilry of bandits has been aided by the sophistication of their weapons. Opinions have favoured the belief that the police are a often mismatch for the robbers due to their types of ammunition, a situation that equally tends to have emboldened the latter.
Many people spoken to explained that lots of graduates are roaming the street without jobs and that as long as government did not provide jobs for them, those in government should be held responsible.
However, the Police sometimes score a bull’s eye. They sometimes parade suspected bandits. Curiously, among the suspects recently paraded was a certain Pastor Ibikunle Olanrewaju John of the Way of Joy Church, located in Ikotun-Egbe in Alimosho Local Government Area. According to the State Commissioner of Police, Umar Manko, the recovery of the remains of a dead robber, later identified as Teslim Okunola, otherwise known as Esho, led the Police to arrest other members of the deadly gang. Items recovered from them were a Toyota Sienna car, assault rifles and charms.
The arrest of a five-man gang, who terrorised Victoria Island, Lekki, Ajah and Epe axis, also in March, provided a clue to the gimmicks of robbers, who may not possess guns to rob their victims. Chinedu Ndubisi, 23, the gang leader, told the Police that they would hit a vehicle, especially driven by a female from behind and, while the occupant alighted to see the impact of the collision, a member of his gang would take possession immediately and speed off.
Interestingly, until their arrest, Ndubuisi, alongside his accomplices-Haruna Mohammed, 44 and Slyvanus Happyday, 35- used to hide their stolen cars in a Catholic Church. They were apprehended while trying to dispose off a Toyata Corolla LE car, with number plate AG 816 SGD they had stolen from a woman at Chevron/New Road at Ajah.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Ngozi Braide, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, told this magazine: “The State Government and the police have made huge successes. If you look at my crime statistics for 2012, you would realise that crime is on the decline, especially armed robbery cases. The Police have been able to curtail them,” she said.
The Police spokeswoman cited the arrest of robbers who operated at the MMA and those responsible for the killing of policemen at Ajah as evidence of their feat in crime-bursting. She stated further: “You can’t take away crime in a cosmopolitan city like Lagos State, but as soon as these crimes are committed, our men (Police) step in and the robbers are brought to book”.
When asked why the Police could not be pro-active in foiling crime, rather than wait to make arrests after they must have been committed, Braide retorted, “the Police have a wide intelligence network and have also been pro-active”. She gave an example of an attempted bank robbery at Ajao Estate, which was foiled based on a tip-off. “We gathered information that robbers were coming from Ogun State to rob a bank at Ajao Estate, and based on information, we intercepted them at Abule Egba, recovering a cache of weapons, dynamites and other explosives from them”, Braide stated. She said effective policing relied on useful information for intelligence gathering. She, therefore, enjoined members of the public to volunteer useful information to the Police. Although the attack was foiled through the Rapid Response Squad attached to Pen Cinema Police Station, one of them, Constable Nafiu, was however killed during a gun duel with the robbers.
—Fola Ademosu