The rising rate of crime in our streets is alarming and calls for urgent response from concerned quarters. People are no longer safe in their houses and walking by roadsides are even far riskier. Worst still, nowhere seems to be safe these days. Criminals of all sorts are having filled day mugging, kidnapping, pilfering, and robbing on a daily basis.
Though, security forces are doing their jobs, it seems they are overwhelmed by the rate at which criminals are operating. What started as pick pocketing and snatching of handbags have escalated into rampant house burglary, robbing with guns in neighbourhoods and mugging victims by roadsides.
In Ikorodu today, criminals attack victims at home, by roadside, in vehicles and unlikely areas. People have been warned to be careful at everywhere they found themselves. It doesn’t matter whether the place feels safe, people have to be extra careful. Places that hitherto seem safe for passers-by are now crime spots; market place, bus stops and inner streets are crime areas.
Criminals are adopting newer tactics in robbing and stealing from people. For example, there are group of hoodlums at the Ikorodu Garage who specializes in picking pockets from unsuspecting pedestrians and passengers. They deploy various methods of stealing phones from bags and pockets.
One of their usual tricks is joining passengers at peak periods to rush for vehicles. The thieves would have marked the pockets or bags of their victims and join the rush for entering a vehicle, in the process of struggling for gaining entrance, they fumble their hands into the pocket or bag of the unsuspecting passenger for phone. In recent times, they have started a new means of stealing from people in broad daylight.
The BRT Bus stop at Garage is an area these miscreants chose to rob people. During afternoon and evening, between the hours of three to five pm when the bus terminal is deserted and lonely, the thieves stand at the end of the bus station to target suitable victims to prey on.
One of them will hurriedly brush an unsuspecting passer-by in front of the station and while the victim responds, the thief grabs your pocket or bag and spectators from afar will believe its two people about to fight. These bad boys are proficient in sliding phone from people’s pocket while holding someone as if they are fighting. This was how they robbed News Editor of the Oriwu Sun at the BRT bus terminal in Ikorodu.
Another way miscreants are deploying to rob in streets is by hanging around lonely streets in wait of helpless victims. They often carry guns; whether real or fake guns, no one can tell, and hold people to ransom. Any street looking deserted during the day has become a good point for thieves. In the second week of August 2021, at the Ojuloge Street of Laketu, around Lucky Fibre area, two unidentified boys hanged around an unoccupied shop. While a girl was passing by, she was stopped at gunpoint. When her boyfriend joined her, they were both marched to where they were charging their phones and have them removed from the power source. That same night, the same-armed boys were reportedly seen robbing a middle-aged woman in the same street. These happened on Sunday at about 9 pm.
Burglary is a crime that happens once in a while, but the recent cases are terrifying as burglars are more embolden to attack people in residences. A recent flat robbery was at Cele Bus Stop off Ijede Road, where armed boys robbed a block of six rooms and parlour flats. In one of the rooms, two of the armed men told the victim to “behave himself” They stole phones and cash of roughly ten thousand naira. Other tenants in the rest of the five apartments lost phones, wristwatches, necklace and cash to the armed group.
A Laspotech part time student, Idris Badru, who went home to collect items from his father, was kidnapped by unidentified men who dressed in casual police regalia. The event happened along the Radio Bus Stop of Ota-Ona, on August 25, 2021, while Idris was returning back to campus.
According to him, the bike men who rode him from garage suddenly stopped at the Radio Bus Stop and said his bike, was out of fuel.
While Idris alight from the bike two men from a bus approached him and seized him, alleging that they are policemen. He was asked to release his phone while they bundled him into the bus. The roving vehicle picked four other young boys by the roadside and drove them to unknown destination.
The victims had no idea where they were being taken to until they found themselves at Ikeja. “When I peeped through the window, after a long time, I saw a sign post reading Ikeja. By then, I didn’t suspect anything till we arrived in another environment in the bush.” It was later in the evening they asked Idris to call his father on the phone; when he did, they announced on the phone that they were not Police Officers but kidnappers and demanded for a hundred thousand naira ransom. While the father pleaded on the phone, they insisted on ninety thousand, else they will take the boy to a more dangerous location.
The father rallied round to raise fifty thousand naira, paid into his son’s account, while Idris’ mother and sister paid twenty thousand naira each into his account. The kidnappers used a POS (point of sale) card reader to claim the ninety thousand from his bank account.
According to him, the two other hostages also called their affinities, who paid hundred thousand naira each for their release. However, he wouldn’t know the fate of the other boys, who were taken to unknown location by the kidnappers. At about six pm, Idris was dropped in a bush path where he saw a lady and explained his plight to her. The lady informed him that he was at Ibafo along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and gave him five hundred naira which he used to pay from there to Ikorodu. Idris Badru found his way home at about 11pm the next day.
The lesson for residents is to be vigilant every time. People should endeavor to pay attention to security details in their houses, neighbourhood and in the streets. Withdraw from any place you suspect or smell anything unusual. Avoid dark streets at night, and watch a vehicle carefully before boarding.
Delete sensitive information, especially on bank details and National ID Number, from your phone. Pay attention to security tips shared through the mass media and those shared on credible whatsapp groups.