BY BRIGHT JACOB
With the current hardship brought about by the recent removal of subsidy on petroleum products, criminal gangs in Ikeja, Lagos, may have devised and perfected new tricks to steal valuables and mobile phones from their unsuspecting victims.
Small criminal gangs operating in Ikeja under the popular Ikeja flyover on Awolowo way, just stone’s throw from Ikeja Local Government Council Secretariat and the Police College located on Oba Akinjobi Street, and precisely in front of “Ikeja Glass House,” have made the immediate vicinity of the bridge their hunting ground.
What has continued to baffle Nigerians, however, is the presence of a Police Armoured Personnel Carrier permanently stationed under the bridge, but seemingly ineffective to deter the criminals.
According to one victim who agreed to speak with our correspondent under the condition of anonymity, it was time the Police swung into action “by extending their net to arrest all the thieves.”
The victim said the police team under the bridge was only good at using their APC to “intimidate motorists and commercial bus drivers into parting with some change at night” and that it was not acceptable how the police had allowed the network of the gangs to continue to flourish in the area.
Narrating how he was almost robbed, he said, “I was returning from work in the evening, and I had walked past the newly redesigned Ikeja roundabout when out of nowhere someone walked right in front of me and stopped abruptly. Because he stopped where I couldn’t easily bypass him, I waited for a few seconds for him to continue moving.
“Alas, that was when someone else, most likely his gang member, was busy unzipping the bag pack I carried on my back. Thank God I didn’t keep my valuables in the compartment he opened.
“Surprisingly, it was a man who witnessed the whole thing that told me that some thieves had opened my bag. This was after the thieves had left. It seems people are afraid to speak up for fear of being attacked.
“The police simply just park their APC here, but don’t do anything to arrest the situation. It is time they swing into action by extending their net to arrest all the thieves.
“They shouldn’t be only good at using their vehicle to intimate motorists and commercial bus drivers into parting with some ‘change’ at night. It is unacceptable the police are allowing this sort of criminality to continue here,” he concluded.
“That is when we will be able to hold those policemen responsible. But if Nigerians see something that the Police did not see, and they do not tell the Police…there’s nowhere in the world where Policemen are magicians or witches and wizards”
Apart from thieves operating under the flyover, the activities of “one chance” commercial buses plying the “Egbeda – Ikeja Inside” route have also increased. They too now employ new tactics to execute their own nefarious act.
A housewife, Juliet Ugorji, who fell victim and was spotted wailing uncontrollable by our correspondent at the National Filling Station Bus-stop, after Ikeja Along Bus-stop and within walking distance of the local airport, told The Point that she had boarded a vehicle at Maicon Bus-stop along Akowonjo Road, enroute Ikeja-Inside, when she was robbed.
Ugorji said, “I left home very early in the morning as I needed to see someone who was travelling at the local airport. I then boarded a vehicle with two other passengers already seated. One of the passengers sat in front with the driver while the other one was seated in the second row. The “conductor” ushered me to sit in the front with one of the two passengers. That was my mistake.
“When the bus started moving, the conductor pretended to slam the front door shut, but couldn’t. And because I was sitting close to the door, he asked me to assist him with the door so that he would be able to ‘jam’ it.
“Because I was scared of falling off the moving vehicle, I held the door as if my life depended on it, putting all my energy and attention to the task, while the conductor continued to pretend to shut the door.
“That was likely when the other passenger seated at the front seat of the bus quietly opened my bag and took my phone, and when the driver got to Cele Bus-stop, he said the bus had developed a fault and that passengers had to alight.
“Because I was running late, I quickly jumped out of the vehicle, and they gave me the fare I paid for the trip.
“Strangely, immediately I got off the bus, it zoomed off and I stood there wondering what miracle had taken place as the vehicle was apparently “jerking” when the driver asked us to come down.
“It was when I got to my Bus-stop that I realised that my phone had been stolen. I then tried to call my line using a good Samaritan’s phone, but it had been switched off,” Ugorji lamented.
Presented with the reports about the two incidents and whether the Police was aware, the Police Public Relations Officer, Lagos State Command, Benjamin Hundeyin, said Divisional Police Officers of areas concerned were mandated to handle such reports within their jurisdictions.
However, he said he hadn’t heard such a report and was sure the DPO in the area concerned hadn’t, either.
Continuing, Hundeyin said he would advise those victims who report such incidents to journalists to also let the Police know what happened because, according to him, the reports are “the things we collate and help us to restrategise.”
Hundeyin said, “DPOs are mandated to handle such reports within their jurisdictions. But I have not heard such and I am pretty certain that the DPO in that area has not, too.
“So, I would suggest that you advise those people who report to journalists to, in addition to that, also let the Police know. Because all of the reports are the things we collate and which help us to restrategise.
“For instance, it is through the reports we will know that it is often ladies that are the targets (of the supposed commercial vehicles). So that the next time we see a lady in front at our checkpoints, we will quickly become suspicious.
“Then, if she is holding the door, we would just tell them to stop. And if possible, do a random search on people or ask questions or even ask the lady to check her purse to ascertain whether everything inside is complete.
“And if she says no, we’ll ask what is missing and search the other occupiers of the vehicle, recover the item and then arrest the thief or thieves.
“But if people don’t report, we won’t know how to strategize or re-strategize. So, to answer your question, we don’t have any report. But if we do, it will help us a lot in fighting crime,” he added.
On the criminals at the Ikeja flyover, Hundeyin said it is “a shame on brotherliness” that Nigerians, who are supposed to be their brothers’ keepers have refused to raise any alarm when they witness criminals stealing from their victims.
Hundeyin, a Superintendent of Police, also said there’s always a police patrol vehicle stationed under the bridge where passers-by who are afraid of raising any alarm for fear of being attacked by the thieves, can quickly make a report. He said such timely reports had enabled men of the Rapid Response Squad “to arrest a lot of criminals.”
On the accusations against the Policemen stationed under the flyover not being up and doing, Hundeyin said, “The report I am expecting now is someone telling us that he or she saw somebody robbing another person, went to those police officers and told them but they did nothing.
“That is when we will be able to hold those policemen responsible. But if Nigerians see something that the Police did not see, and they do not tell the Police…there’s nowhere in the world where Policemen are magicians or witches and wizards,” he
concluded.
