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Traffic Robberies On The Rise In Lagos, As Police Says Cases Not Often Reported

By Tobi Awodipe
25 July 2015   |   4:50 am
DRIVING in Lagos is different from driving anywhere else in the world. Apart from the unending traffic snarls and bad roads, traffic robbery has been joined to the driving mix, making Lagosians further unease.

traffic robberyDRIVING in Lagos is different from driving anywhere else in the world. Apart from the unending traffic snarls and bad roads, traffic robbery has been joined to the driving mix, making Lagosians further unease.

It is bad enough to deal with the terrible traffic daily, but to add the fear of being robbed is taking it to a whole new height. Few years ago, traffic robbery was practically unheard of and such occurrence was usually few and far between.

The common scenario was people robbed in lonely stretches of roads or when their vehicles broke down in lonely roads and mostly at night.

Back then, whenever a driver’s vehicle broke down, he was advised to abandon it at the spot and seek help. Sadly, all that has become a thing of the past now, as Lagos drivers pray and hope and pray not to fall victims of traffic robberies.

These robbers, usually young males, rob innocent drivers at will, brazenly and with impunity, knowing that no one would stop them or arrest them. Initially, these young males used the ‘distract and rob’ method that involves two or more of them. One of them would approach your car from the passenger’s side to tell you something.

Sometimes, it is inaudible and other times, you might be told you had a flat tyre or something along those lines. What you usually don’t know is that there is usually another member of the gang waiting on the driver’s side to dispossess you of your items while you are occupied with his partner on the other side.

Before you realise it, your wallet, phone and other valuables would have disappeared into thin air, as these robbers are usually lightning quick. Other times, when you get down to check the ‘flat tyre,’ you are robbed at either gun or knife point even in busy streets.

Lagosians have now recognised their tricks and don’t stop for any reason, even with an obvious flat tyre with the metal scraping the road. Most drivers in Lagos have learnt to drive with their car glasses wound up tight, even in vehicles without air conditioner (AC) and keep valuables away from plain sight, since such usually attracts these miscreants.

According to a Nigerian proverb, Eneke the bird believes since men have learnt to shoot without missing, it has learnt to fly without perching. Like this bird, these traffic robbers appear to have upgraded their strategies, as they now even knocks on wound up glasses, showing the driver or passenger a concealed weapon and asking him/her to cooperate or face bodily harm, usually in traffic snarls and in the full glare of other road users.

Sometimes, maybe out of fear, most people would wound down and parted with their valuables. But gradually, the story is changing, as these robbers do not even knock on your glass and ask you to wind down anymore. They simply break your side glasses, rob you with brazen impunity and stroll away mostly into the dark, looking for their next victim, with other drivers just looking the other way, hoping and praying the robbers do not approach them.

This sad situation may not have happened to you, but it may have happened to someone you know or at least read about, so most people have an idea of what it is. Early this year, a popular Nigerian fashion designer narrated her harrowing experience about how she was robbed at CMS in broad daylight by cutlass-wielding robbers. She was lucky to escape unhurt, though her diver was injured.

That wasn’t the case of Miss Gloria Dike. Narrating her story to The Guardian, she thanked God for her life. “I was driving home from work and there was the usual evening rush traffic at Apongbon. “All of a sudden, two men approached my vehicle, one on each side.

My heart was beating because I guessed I was about to be robbed. “Before I could even form a word, I heard a loud sound and saw shards of glasses all over me.

They hit me and told me I wanted to prove stubborn and they were going to teach me a lesson. “After taking my bag, phones and Ipad, one of them hit me with a cutlass.

This happened in traffic, with hundreds of cars around me and not a single person came to my help; everyone was just looking at me. “The whole attack lasted less than two minutes, but it felt like two hours. I couldn’t believe I was violently attacked in the full glare of other Nigerians and no one did anything. “Still, I thank God I didn’t lose my life, as it could have been worse,’ she concluded. Mrs. Taiwo Adejumo told The Guardian that her daughter was robbed of her handbag on the link road between Anthony and Oshodi-Oke last week, the second time in the space of two months.

This is an area that not lighted at night and there is no security presence whatsoever in the vicinity and this is similar to what many people have suffered and are still suffering on a daily basis during traffic jams in Lagos. Another woman narrated her experience on a blog, saying: “I want to give my testimony.

At 11:30pm, two sets of people attempted to rob me in traffic. I had just gotten off the phone with my mum to say I was in standstill traffic. “When the first set of two guys yelled at me from outside my window to wind down, unknown to me, she immediately said a prayer for my safe return. “I remember hearing that your best escape was to honk your horn repeatedly. I put my hand on the horn and didn’t let go.

And I called God in my mind to help me. “Immediately, I saw an opening in the next lane and swerved in, still pressing my horn. They fled. “Five minutes later, three guys came to the driver’s side window. Pointing torches into my car. Same instructions- ‘wind down, give us something.’ “The next thing, I see something swing and my window shatters. At that very minute, another space opens on the next lane and I swerve in while honking. They fled. “Many would say I was almost robbed, I say I was saved and thank you God for His mercies.” In days past, most people felt safe driving in Lagos traffic as long as the windows were up and the doors locked.

Now, even a bulletproof glass window cannot save you, sadly. The various hotspots that have been identified by commuters include Mile 2/Apapa axis, Apongbon bridge, as well as under the bridge in Ijora, Oshodi-Oke, Iyana-Oworo and CMS. During the course of this story, The Guardian visited Oshodi-Oke at night. Right there on the bridge are clusters of young boys sitting on the road protector, just sitting and staring into space. You might think they are harmless, but what you might not know is that most of them are pickpockets and robbers, watching to see if anyone is careless enough to let their guard down.

Right then, one of the boys hurled himself from where he was sitting and snatched a woman’s bag from her car as she was talking on her phone, with LASTMA officials less than five feet from her. Before the poor woman could scream ‘my bag!’ the young miscreant had darted across the road and ran down the ‘steps’ to Oshodi-Isale into the blackness of the night.

There was no way anybody could catch up with him, as everything happened so fast. The woman was left helpless and crying. Many link this present terror partly with societal issues, like rising income inequality and more people becoming poorer and poorer everyday, negative societal values and poor or zero parenting and the ease in joining bad gangs and cults.

The Nigerian Police Force, made up of less than 400,000 men and officers, is contending with a population of almost N160 million, which translates to roughly 205 police officers per 150,000 people.

The Police Command Public Relations Officer of the Lagos State Command, Ken Nwosu, acknowledged the activities of the hoodlums, who cash in on the early morning and late evening traffic gridlock to cause havoc.

He, however, told The Guardian that the Command recently posted its men to the aforementioned corridors to combat crime. He said: “Crime is on the decline in those areas, according to the intelligence made available to us. “We have caught some of the miscreants. Just recently at the Mile 2 axis, some of the robbery victims reclaimed their items, which we found with the robbers.”

He, however, noted that most victims of traffic robbery failed to report such incidents to the Police; hence they have no knowledge of how many people were attacked on a daily basis. He urged victims to report every robbery attack to the nearest Police station with a clear account of events.

On keeping safe in traffic, Nwosu said that internal vigilance is the price of liberty and advised motorists to always be on the alert and keep valuables out of sight. He further lamented that most Nigerians do not even know the Police emergency numbers, wondering how they will report any crime quickly.

The Police spokesman further said the command has started cracking down on street/traffic traders, intelligence reports indicated that some of them were robbers or robbers’ informants.

A visit to the Third Mainland Bridge showed that the Police have really improved their presence on the longest bridge in Africa, as policemen were seen not too far apart. This has eliminated crime on the former notorious bridge.

Chinedu Nnoli, who works on the Island and plied the road almost on daily basis, this is commendable. But he wants the Police to extend their vigilance to other places, especially Iyana-Oworo and Apongbon. “That Apongbon is something else now.

I am always depressed whenever I have to pass there, as I have been robbed there twice and witnessed several robberies. It seems the robbers are fearless and they operate in the full glare of everyone. “I would really be grateful if the Police can help us quickly, because the place has become a nightmare for many commuters.”

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