Posted on: 07:37 Tue, 10 Nov 2015



Some residents of Adio, Ekimogun
streets and Kehinde Lane in the
Bariga area of Lagos State have
started fleeing their homes after
robbers kept attacking them
repeatedly

PUNCH Metro learnt that Adio
residents were attacked three times
last week, Ekimogun Street had two
visits and Kehinde Lane was invaded
once.

During the raid of Ekimogun, a
newly-wed woman who just moved
into the house with her husband was
raped while her husband was forced
to watch.

The security guard of a nursery and
primary school on Adio Street was
bound by his hands and feet and
beaten up severely.

The frequency of the attacks and the
inability of the police to address the
scourge forced some of the residents
to form local vigilantes to ward off
the robbers.

The landlady in one of the houses,
who identified herself as Olubukola,
told our correspondent her children
had stopped going to school because
she no longer slept at home.

She said despite not staying at home,
the robbers still broke into her room
and carted away valuables.

She said, “They have entered my
house three times now. The first time
was early Monday morning. They
ransacked all the flats in the
building.

“On Wednesday night c*m Thursday
morning, they returned and stole
more things. Because of all these,
people stopped living in their houses.

My children and I now squat in a
friend’s apartment in Alagbado.

“But on Friday morning, we
returned and discovered the robbers
had come and because they did not
meet anybody, they broke in and
took away my television and DSTV
decoder.”

Our correspondent learnt that in
another house on the street, the
robbers carted away handsets,
laptops, money and ATM cards.

A resident, who identified himself as
Solomon Johnson, said, “They
demanded the PINs of the cards.

After they left and discovered that
the PINs were incorrect, they
returned to the room the next day
and attacked the owners for giving
them wrong PINs. They then asked
for the correct PINs from them.”

It was gathered that the robbers, who
were mostly teenagers and in their
early 20s, wielded cutlasses,
crowbars and axes.

A resident said while some wore
masks, others did not hide their
faces.

A resident, Solomon, said he was
attacked with a cutlass after the
robbers thought he was hiding
phones from them.

He said, “They cut my leg with a
cutlass and beat me up, telling me to
release the phones. I told them I did
not have any phone. I was admitted
in the hospital for two days.”

On Ekimogun where the rape took
place, a resident said the incident
happened around 2am.

He said, “There is a sports viewing
centre around here and some of us
stay there. If we knew a robbery was
going on we could have done
something.

“But those robbers sneaked in and
held those people hostage. The
woman just moved into the house
with her husband. They got married
less than a month ago.

“One of the robbers raped her. She
was taken to the hospital the next
day for treatment.”

A community leader and Chairman,
Security Committee for Adio
Community, Femi Emiko, said the
robbers always fled through the
Oworonsoki Expressway, adding that
the police were not using the right
technique to arrest them.

He said, “Actually, within one week,
they have visited Adio five times.

They have turned this community to
an ‘ATM machine’ where they can
withdraw money anytime they like.

“The police do come, but
immediately the robbers hear their
siren, they run away. We have been
having meetings to see how to form
vigilantes and fight these robbers.

They are young guys and we can win
this fight.”

The Police Public Relations Officer,
Joe Offor, had yet to reply to a text
message sent to his phone as of the
time of filing this report.

Source: PunchNg