Criminals rob daily on Lagos roads, get away with the loot, and smile to their den without stress. They feast on the traffic snarl brought on by the millions of inhabitants whose cars consume some 15 million litres of fuel a day to drive the mega city to gridlocks.
From Obalende to Okokomaiko, Yaba to Mile 12, Ojuelegba to Ijora, Oshodi to Apapa, no part of the Centre of Excellence is spared of ‘go slow’ mostly during the peak period in the morning (7am to 9am) and in the evening (5pm to 9pm).
Traffic tailbacks can last for far longer hours when there is an accident or heavy rain fall.
Heart in the mouth at night
Robbers strike mostly at night, turning driving into a nightmare, even when the city becomes serene and the moon and the stars provide light and reassuring peace when public power supply fails.
Robbery during traffic jam has escalated in the past two months. And policemen and officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) appear helpless.
Armed robbers dispossess motorists of their belongings – money, mobile telephone handsets, computer laptops. They go for whatever they desire with devilish instinct – maiming victims most times, and killing when hooked by blood-letting spasm.
Gangs in Ijora, Apapa
Apapa-Oshodi expressway, between Second Rainbow bus stop and Mile 2 as well the stretch from the top of coconut bridge to Liverpool in the heart of Apapa are notorious havens for criminal operations.
The stretch between Ogudu and Oworonshoki to Ketu also have terror spots once there is a traffic jam.
But the patch from top of Ijora Bridge, towards Marine Beach bus stop on Mobil Road in Apapa, seems to hold the ace.
Because of near-permanent daily traffic snarl, hardly does a day pass without incidents of robbery.
Densely populated locations and joints in this cluster are as chaotic as they are many. Robbers strike once darkness sets in.
N23K saves lives at Second Rainbow
A journalist who was a victim at Second Rainbow bus stop on the Oshodi-Apapa expressway early last month recounted how three young men approached his vehicle, knocked at the door on the driver’s seat and demanded money.
“Give us money, give us money,” they said in a dreaded but calculated voice not loud enough to attract much attention. To show they meant business, one rolled up his shirt to reveal a pistol tucked in his waist.
The victim was in the car with a female colleague from the office. To avoid being harmed, he told the colleague to bring out some money.
The man wound down the door glass slightly to give them the money but that became another undoing, as the criminals held down the glass and raised the stakes.
They threatened to shoot the female colleague if the man did not do their bidding. The man did, and the thieves made away with the woman’s purse which contained N23,000.
Most times, there are policemen with patrol vehicles stationed at Mile 2, which is not far from Second Rainbow bus stop. Yet robberies take place regularly at the Rainbow and Mile 2 axis at night or in traffic jam during the day.
Tin Can, Liverpool axis
Every patch of the road from Coconut bridge to Tin Can and Liverpool produces daily tales of woe inflicted on motorists. The ports in Apapa as well as the tank farms around Coconut are the honey that attracts criminal ‘bees’ to the area.
Attacks on Ijora bridge are a recurring decimal as fuel tankers parked on the bridge cause frustrating traffic snarl.
Heist at Lillypond; policemen on sight
At about 8.30pm on Friday, July 18, robbers there went haywire on a robbing spree.
Three staff of TheNiche heading for the press in Apapa that night were caught up in traffic in a taxi and ended up being robbed as well. The incident happened a few metres to Lillypond container terminal, where Rapid Response Squad (RRS) officers manned a check point.
The robbers pretended to be among people walking on the bridge and went up and down surveilling vehicles.
They first walked past by the taxi occupied by TheNiche staff in a suspicious manner. About three minutes later, they returned.
One peeped into the taxi, and before the occupants could blink, he used a weapon to smash the glass on the right side of the back door. Shards of glass splashed on the two occupants of the back seat.
The robber unlocked the doors, opened them, and four others joined him to swoop on the occupants, ransacking and threating to shoot them. Amid beating, they demanded for money and telephone handsets.
The taxi driver took to his heels. But the robbers blocked the three passengers from alighting from the taxi and dispossessed them of telephone handsets, money and a laptop computer. One passenger received injuries.
The robbers also stole from the occupants of the vehicle in front of the taxi before they walked away leisurely.
You are on your own
As is always the case in Lagos, onlookers and other motorists were too scared to intervene.
A few minutes later, two armed policemen came to the scene after being alerted by passers-by. It was too late. The robbers had walked off the bridge towards Marine Beach bus stop.
The traffic still did not move.
