Joy Anyim
Traffic robberies and other violent crimes are on the increase in Lagos metropolis, findings by The Nigerian Xpress has shown.
According to some residents, who spoke with our correspondent, major highways in the dark have become a nightmare; worsened by the traffic snarl that bedevils major roads in the state.
A sales representative, who identified herself simply as Uju, said her iPhone was recently stolen at Orile area while returning from work at about 7p.m. last Tuesday.
She claimed she was on a commercial motorcycle when a four-man gang from an unknown destination accosted her and the cyclist, threatening them with a gun to submit all their belongings.
Uju said she did, as she was afraid of being shot by the unknown gunmen.
Similarly, Kendrick, a resident of FESTAC, said he was robbed while in traffic around Costain Bridge. “I am only lucky to be alive because the robbers broke my windscreen and made aware with my laptop and phones. I couldn’t even challenge them because they were armed and none could also come to my rescue for fear of being harmed,” he said.
He lamented the increasing cases of traffic robbery, saying that more needed to be done in securing the highways and streets.
He also disclosed that a close friend of his was also robbed in his house in Bariga recently, losing valuables.
Usually, the traffic robbers loiter around to wait for a vehicle to break down or in traffic and then swoop on unsuspecting drivers and commuters, wielding dangerous objects to intimidate and coerce victims to part with their possessions, such as phones, wallets and other valuables and zoom away without hindrance. There have been occasions when they actually used their weapons either to break windscreens or the heads of their victims.
This menace has been progressively on the rise due to the state of the economy and bad roads where vehicles must necessarily slow down. These often happen in the presence of overwhelmed security operatives, who watch helplessly as the vicious urchins wreak havoc on hapless road users.
The audacity of the robbers is baffling. Take for instance, the robbery of a staff bus on Marina Bridge in broad daylight recently. The robbers ordered the passengers to come down one by one, collected their phones and other belongings before zooming off on their motorbike unchallenged.
In fact, that marina axis up to Apongbon Bridge and Eko Bridge have assumed notoriety for traffic robbery and commuters need not be warned to be careful when passing through those areas. It has been like that for ages without any serious effort made to police the place.
There is no particular area one could term to be safe in Lagos. Whether you are in a vehicle or trekking, there is always the likelihood of being confronted by these robbers, coming to snatch your property or demand for it. You are on your own if you try to resist them.
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However, security operatives have received marching orders to drive these robbers out of Lagos.
Lagos State Police Command’s spokesperson, Olumuyiwa Adejobi recently said the command had deployed 1,000 officers and equipment to check traffic robberies on Lagos highways, and intensified motorised patrols.
This has resulted in a harvest of the sort. According to the Lagos State Police Command, 127 traffic robbers were arrested in three months.
The Commissioner of Police (CP), Hakeem Odumosu, had also reassured Lagosians that robbery in traffic would soon fizzle out and become history in the state, as the Lagos State Police Command has deployed its human and material resources to tackle the menace headlong.
Odumosu said the suspected traffic robbers were arrested at various locations within the state, noting that the command has been fighting robbery in traffic relentlessly, even before the recent donation of crime-fighting equipment and communication gadgets to the command by the Lagos State Government.
Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, had donated 150 vehicles, four high-capacity troop carriers, 30 patrol cars, and two anti-riot water cannon vehicles to the police as part of efforts to strengthen security responses across the State. Elated Odumosu added that with the new equipment from the state government, the fight against the menace will be intensified and more effective.
The CP, however, insisted that robbery in traffic has drastically reduced based on the available figure of the isolated cases of robbery in traffic, which is not unconnected to the command’s renewed anti-crime strategies being emplaced.
Similarly, he has ordered that the combat training, musketry and range practice for police personnel in the command should be continuous, as the command also commenced the training of the police operatives attached to the newly formed Anti-Traffic Robbery Squad to tackle the menace of robbery in traffic in Lagos State.
In the same vein, operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), have nabbed two notorious suspected robbers along Ikorodu Road, Lagos.
The suspects, Tunde Ramoni, 21 and Adepoju Samuel, 34, were caught in the act while robbing a motorist with an unregistered motorcycle (Okada) around the Tipper area, Ketu, Lagos State.
During the course of the investigation, it was revealed that Tunde Ramoni was once arrested with a gang of ‘pick pockets’ in 2019 and was convicted to six months imprisonment.
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police has directed that the two suspects be transferred to the Command’s Special Squad, Ikeja, for proper investigation.
Also, operatives attached to Apapa Division of the command have arrested one Ibrahim Abidun, 26, at Agbomalu Apapa, Lagos State, with two locally made pistols.