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.
