Fear as robbers raid Lagos police barracks

One of the benefits of residing in police barracks is the belief that as a resident, one would always be safe from robbers, thieves and burglars. 

For any criminal to brave entering any police barracks to rob or steal is tantamount to treading where angels fear to tread.
Today, residents of Alausa Barracks are complaining bitterly of incessant robbery attacks and breaking and entry. The barracks is right across the Lagos State Government’s Secretariat; a symbol of security and progress. Right inside the barracks is the Alausa Police Station. Yet, robbers and thieves have serially sneered at the police station and cheerfully gone about their operations.
These complaints came to the fore after last Thursday’s incident.
Thieves broke into apartments of policemen via windows and carted away valuables. The angry residents said this was not the first time such atrocity would be happening. According to the residents, one consistent feature of the robbers is that they always wear face masks. One of them said: “This is the fourth time it would be happening. There was a time robbers came into the barracks, robbed and raped. We are now scared.”
Recalling last week’s Thursday incident, a resident said: “The robbers came through the Mammy Market around 2a.m. They pulled off the window of one of the senior officers’ apartments and stole phones.”
They apparently had all the time in the world for they also went into the sitting room of a particular flat and stole laptops.
One of the victims, identified simply as Mrs. Dosumu, said: “The robbery was not the first in the barracks. On that fateful day, there was no power supply before my children and I went to bed. We plugged and left our laptops and phones on a table near the window. We hoped that when they restored power, the phones and laptops would have charged before dawn.
“It was when power was restored around 5a.m. that we knew that robbers had pulled down the window of our apartment and carted away our valuables. We reported the matter at Alausa Police Station.” Dosumu described the security situation in the barracks as pathetic.
She added: “This is not the first our own apartment had been robbed. There was a time robbers came and dared to venture into apartments of those living upstairs to rob.”
Dosumu said that after the Thursday incident, “police wanted to raid some youths in the barracks, but I was advice by the wife of one of the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) to stop the policemen from embarking on the raid”. When our correspondent visited the barracks, one of the damaged windows of a victim was seen dangling.
Another resident, who pleaded anonymity, said: “The robbery incident took everybody in the barracks by surprise. My family and I just moved into the barracks two months ago. We came from Ondo State to Lagos Command. It is strange to hear that people steal in barracks.
I was shocked when I heard about the incident. Some of the robberies must be youths within who are jobless.” The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Dolapo Badmos, refused to speak on the robbery attack. She neither picked several calls put through to her mobile line nor responded to a text message on the issue.https://newtelegraphonline.com/fear-robbers-raid-lagos-police-barracks/