… as incidence of pickpocketing, bag-snatching rises
An average of 2,000 residents of Lagos lose, on a daily basis, valuables running into millions of naira to either pick pockets or bag snatchers, who mingle with commuters at many of the crowded bus-stops scattered across the emerging mega-city, The Point can now report.
The thieves, who usually work in pairs, would comb some isolated streets looking for vulnerable preys, who are mostly women with hand bags, which they would snatch as they ride on motorcycles past their victims at top speed on such lonely roads to their criminal hideouts, from where the contents of the snatched bags would be emptied and shared among them.
Police sources told The Point that the nefarious activities of these city thieves had become a sort of constant worry to the authorities, who had begun to contemplate whether to establish a special branch to deal with the growing development, or simply allow the traditional Anti-Theft Department to tackle the menace.
The source disclosed that at the over 100 police stations in Lagos, hardly could a day pass without at leasr, 10 persons reporting the loss of their valuables, including cash, to either bag snatchers or pick-pockets in the course of commuting to their destinations or while simply waiting for a bus.
Furthermore, it was learnt that the thieves usually make much money on Fridays and Sundays, when people go to big parties/weddings/ events or places of worships and are returning home in droves.
According to our various sources, their mode of operation involves posing as genuine individuals while perpetrating the crime. “The thieves no longer fear the traditionally known sacred places, such as churches and mosques, which they have continually violated.
Such places have become a target for pickpockets, who would naturally mixup with genuine worshippers and in the process steal their valuables, especially money or other items that they can easily convert to cash,” revealed Mr. Marvel Akpoyibo, a retired deputy inspector general of police, who had repeatedly busted groups of pick –pockets.
Akpoyibo, a crime buster during his heyday as a serving police officer, disclosed further that almost every bus stop in Lagos habours a colony of thieves, especially pickpockets who, “during rush-hours, would struggle with genuine passengers, who they would strip of their valuable items such as mobile phones, wrist watches or necklaces, at the end of which such shady characters would disappear from the scene and move to the next bus stop. You see, I successfully prosecuted many of them while in service,” he told The Point.
The Point identified such places to include Oshodi Bus-stop, Iyana Ipaja, Yaba, Obalende , Aja-Jakande, Ijora-Oloye, Amukoko , Orile, Awoyaya, Egbeda, Mile 2, Ikorodu-Ita Elewa, Ojota, Alago-Meji, Oyingbo-Ido, Mile 12, Badagry Roundabout, Isheri and Abule-Egba, among several other areas, “as hotspots for bag snatching/pickpocket activities.
“Of course, Dopemu Road/Akowonjo has lately become so notorious for bag-snatching by okada riders to the extent that you would not know who to trust while taking okada as a means of transportation.
The idea is that, some of the riders would dress well like complete gentlemen, but in the inner recess of their minds is evil”, a victim, Mrs. Fatimat Asumo, said.
Asumo told The Point that in the early hours of Friday, February 3, she was a passenger on an okada from Dopemu to Agbotikuyo; but midway into the journey, the rider of the okada suddenly slowed down, pretending that some mechanical fault had occurred, only for a strange man to emerge from nowhere and forcibly take away her hand bag containing the sum of N20,000, a wrist watch and a bangle.
“I shouted at the top of my voice that my hand-bag had been snatched but the okada man would not stop as he rode at a high speed before he hurriedly discharged me.
I knew that his action was not in isolation,” she said. Another victim, who spoke with Yje Point, Mr. Iskilu Adeleye, a resident at Okito Street, Ajegunle, said, “I once lost my monthly salary to some unidentified thieves at Boundary Busstop here in Ajegunle.
My salary was N12,000, which I neatly kept in my side pocket, having left Ijora-Oloye, where I was working as a motorboy. I held to the envelope that contained the money, even when I was already in the bus. But when we got to Boundary, I touched my pocket to feel the envelope again, but it was gone!
I nearly cried my eyes out. I had to be pacified by neighbours, who later came to my rescue. It was the neighbour who told me that money is better kept in the bank. Now, I am wiser.”
Responding to a question, Adeleye said he suspected that the thief that made away with his money must have used a diabolical means. “I held very tight to the pocket that contained the money.I wonder how the money was taken away; may be the pick-pocket used some native medicine on me,” he said.
To Evangelist Sunday Alonge of the Christ Mission Church, “the devil is seriously working on the youths, who have been operating on motor cycles snatching bags.
My Parish members have complained time without number how they mysteriously lost valuables in the course of praying in the church or during crusades.
May God help us, because, I do not want to place curse on them. Let them repent now, lest they perish.”
Also speaking on the menace of pickpockets and bag snatchers in Lagos, President, Institute of Criminology and Penology, Mr. SolomonGeorge Osagwena, said, “Although I do not have the statistics, common sense dictates that thieves, under the guise of pick-pockets, have seriously elevated the art to a growing industry, cashing in on the state of the economy.
The police have been trying, but they have to try more by patrolling those areas considered as potential black spots.” “There are many jobless individuals in the society, trying to survive.
They have to be encouraged to try their hands on legitimate things that can help them, rather than taking vocation in petty crimes,” he said.
He observed further that law enforcement officers would do better if they infiltrated these crowded bus stops as nobody would “love to commit a crime in the presence of a uniformed officer.”
However, spokesperson for the Lagos Police Command, Dolapo Badmos, told The Point that the command had put up an enhanced patrol of the entire city with a view to ridding the state of undesirable elements. “We have zero tolerance for criminals.
Whoever tells you crime of whatever status is on the increase should provide statistics. All I know is that, we are on top of our job,” Badmos, a superintendent of police, said.
