Lagos State commuters, who used to
take Agidingbi, ACME and WEMPCO routes of Ikeja to and from their offices, have
urged the state government and commissioner of police to ensure 24 hours
security surveillance along the aforementioned roads.
According to some of them, the
routes have become areas where armed robbers and bag snatchers operate. Most of
these crimes are usually carried out at night, they said.
More worrisome is that some of these
criminals used to pose as tricycle riders to rob unsuspecting passengers.
Ironically, policemen patrol the
ACME route at night, but they only focus on arresting and extorting tricycle
riders.
The policemen, who usually positioned
themselves strategically around the Peak Milk Company axis, used to collect
between N200 and N1000 from tricycle riders arrested at night.
A woman, who declined to give her
name, recounted how her handbag was snatched at night along WEMPCO road.
She said: “It was late at night and
I was in a hurry to get home. I boarded a tricycle going to Agege. I sat by the
edge of the door and held my bag loosely. We were riding through WEMPCO road,
when a motorbike, with two riders, took one way and headed towards us.
Immediately they drew nearer, they snatched my handbag and zoomed off. It was
so unexpected. I was shocked. I lost everything; Phones, ATM cards and N5000. Since
then, I have been warning passengers in tricycles to be security conscious and
handle their handbag with utmost care.”
It was also gathered that one of the
strategies these criminals deployed in robbing passengers is to pretend that
their tricycles were faulty. They would park them at a quiet point and pretend
to be fixing them and later robbed the passengers. They also allegedly used to
waylay pedestrians and rob them.
Mr. Akeem Fawole, working with a
company along ACME, said he and his friends were recently robbed along
Agidingbin road. They were on their way home from work when the incident
happened.
He said: “We closed around 11:20pm on
that fateful day. We walked towards First Gate Bus Stop, planning to board a
tricycle. We waited for a while, but since there was no tricycle in sight, we
started trekking along Agidingbin road. The idea was that we would flag down
any tricycle or bus that comes along and board.
“We had not walked far, when we noticed
that there was a tricycle parked along the road. There were four people inside it;
we thought they were fixing a faulty tricycle. As we drew nearer to them, two
among them grabbed my friend and shouted ‘where is your phone!’ Two among them tried to grab me; I ran and
shouted thief. I tried to attract attention of some people in front, but they
were too far away. They robbed my friend of his phones, valuables and
manhandled him.”
A tricycle rider plying ACME route,
who is also a member of the Tricycle Riders Association, Agege branch, simply
identified as Alfa, disclosed that riders have stickers indicating their routes.
He noted that the safety of the passengers was in their hands.
Alfa said: “All tricycle riders have
a sticker for the routes they operate. The stickers are noticeable on the
bodies of their tricycles. Any tricycle rider found to be involved in robbery
or stealing is probably not registered. We all have hours when we close for the
day. The problem is that passengers don’t come to the bus stop to board
tricycles; they wait by the roadsides to board, which is dangerous. This makes
it easier for them to fall into the hands of armed robbers.”
Alfa advised passengers to always
take bus or tricycles at designated bus stops. He said that if such riders or
driver rob passengers, it would be a piece of cake to trace and fish them out.
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO),
Olarinde Famous-Cole, said that the Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal, has promised
with his new strategy to deployed motorcycle’ officers along the streets and
roads in the state to combat criminal activities.
He added that with the various strategies of the
command under Edgal geared towards reduction of crime in the state, activities thieves and armed robbers using
tricycles to operate, would soon be a thing of the past.
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