The spate of robbery incidents seems to
be on the rise in Ogun State, with the recent experience of the general
manager of a car company in Lagos, Mr. Lanre Bammeke.
His grey Toyota Avensis car, with
registration number LL 969 EKY, was snatched at gunpoint by robbers
dressed in military camouflage. While recounting their ordeal to
Saturday PUNCH, Bammeke said they were also stripped naked and left in
the bush.
On Sunday, June 2, 2013, the company
manager and his wife, Fatima, left home for the wake-keep of a family
friend at Lasada area of Ogun State, but the couple did not reach their
destination. Along Atan/Agbara Road, some ‘soldiers’ riding in a rickety
brown car overtook the couple’s vehicle and ordered them to stop or
risk being killed.
He said, “It was a bad portion of the
road where every driver would have to slow down. They jumped out of
their vehicle, pointed their guns at me and ordered me to stop and get
down the vehicle. They were six in number and four of them were in
military camouflage. They said they would shoot and waste me if I didn’t
come down, so I obeyed them since I didn’t know what I had done.
“Then, they pushed me to the back of my
car and the two that were not in uniform sat on me and rested their
backs like nothing was going on. As for my wife, they pushed her to the
front passenger’s side and forced her to occupy the leg room. One of
them sat in front, bent her head down and put his legs on her so that no
one would know she was there.”
By his estimate, Bammeke said they must
have been driven around for about an hour before arriving at an unknown
place, where they were made to trek further into a thick bush. In the
bush, Bammeke said he and his wife were stripped naked and abandoned.
He said, “We couldn’t see anything so we
didn’t know where we were being driven to. But during the ride, they
were asking if we had a tracker or any form of security in the vehicle.
When we said ‘no’, they threatened to shoot and kill us if the vehicle
stopped along the way. They said ‘we will kill you wherever the vehicle
stops’. Even when my wife was praying, one of them asked her to keep
quiet, that they had already fortified themselves with juju.
“After parking, they marched us further
about 200 metres into the bush. Their own car did not follow and it was
only four of them that came in my car that were there. When we got to a
thick part of the bush, they stripped us naked and ordered us to lie
down. My wife was left with only her panties and her bra was used to tie
my hands behind my back. They went with everything, including our
clothes.”
He said the hoodlums threatened to kill
them right there in the bush. He said they also vowed that their bodies
would never be found.
“At that point, my soul was out of my
body spiritually and I was looking at my body and my wife down there.
Even after they left, fear gripped us so we stayed there for sometime. I
realised that what was happening to us could have been what many people
declared missing today might have gone through,” he said.
Bammeke added that they might have even
slept off before realising that the robbers had probably left them
alone. At a point when there was silence all around them, he said his
wife loosened the bra used to tie her hands and then freed him.
They then found their way out of the
place, naked. Trudging along unclad, Bammeke said they chanced upon some
villagers, who fled.
The company executive said, “It was
already dark and we didn’t hear any voices again, so my wife untied me
and we started looking for footpaths. Some okada riders (commercial
motorcyclists) who saw us wanted to turn back and speed off, but I
quickly shouted and begged them to assist by getting us to the nearest
police station.
“One of the okada riders took us to Atan
Police Station, where we were given clothes and put in a chartered cab
to Agbara Police Station that night. The police really tried for us
because they still gave us money to get transport home. Till now, each
time my wife thinks about the experience, she shivers. As for me, I have
had a hard time taking any food. It was as if my throat was blocked.”
Investigation shows that the Bammekes’
experience may have become a new trend of snatching vehicles in parts of
Ogun State. For instance, a source at Atan Police Station said that
another couple suffered the same sad experience three days after the
Bammekes’ ordeal.
The Bammekes are yet to find their car
but the police source gave the assurance that efforts were ongoing to
recover the vehicle.
“We are trying our best to recover the stolen vehicle,” the source said.
Also, an okada rider in the area told
Saturday PUNCH that the bush where he sighted the couple is located
along Egodo Road. He confirmed that the area had become notorious for
robbery incidents.
He said, “My brother was also robbed
around there recently, but he was not stripped naked. Although, they
also collected everything he had on him and drove him to the bush.”
The company executive told Saturday PUNCH that he was yet to get over the incident, even after two weeks.
He said, “I suspect that they were not
military men; they were only criminals in military uniform. But each
time I think about it, I feel cheated. That night, I took sleeping
pills, but I still couldn’t sleep. During the ordeal, they even asked us
to pray for them, which we did because we didn’t have a choice. “Just
the other night, my wife woke up from sleep and started shouting that
she heard a voice telling her to wake up because armed robbers were
around.”
The Ogun State Police Command’s Public
Relations Officer, Mr. Muyiwa Adejobi, in a text message to Saturday
PUNCH, described the case as “strange”, saying he was not aware of it.
“However, we will look into it and act accordingly; we will fine tune a way forward,” he said.
PUNCH
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