PUNCH Metro learnt that Adio residents were attacked three times last
week, Ekimogun Street had two visits and Kehinde Lane was invaded once.
During the raid of Ekimogun, a
newly-wed woman who just moved into the house with her husband was raped while
her husband was forced to watch.
The security guard of a nursery and
primary school on Adio Street was bound by his hands and feet and beaten up
severely.
The frequency of the attacks and the
inability of the police to address the scourge forced some of the residents to
form local vigilantes to ward off the robbers.
The landlady in one of the houses,
who identified herself as Olubukola, told our correspondent her children had
stopped going to school because she no longer slept at home.
She said despite not staying at
home, the robbers still broke into her room and carted away valuables.
She said, “They have entered my
house three times now. The first time was early Monday morning. They ransacked
all the flats in the building.
“On Wednesday night c*m Thursday
morning, they returned and stole more things. Because of all these, people
stopped living in their houses. My children and I now squat in a friend’s
apartment in Alagbado.
“But on Friday morning, we returned
and discovered the robbers had come and because they did not meet anybody, they
broke in and took away my television and DSTV decoder.”
Our correspondent learnt that in
another house on the street, the robbers carted away handsets, laptops, money
and ATM cards.
A resident, who identified himself
as Solomon Johnson, said, “They demanded the PINs of the cards. After they left
and discovered that the PINs were incorrect, they returned to the room the next
day and attacked the owners for giving them wrong PINs. They then asked for the
correct PINs from them.”
It was gathered that the robbers,
who were mostly teenagers and in their early 20s, wielded cutlasses, crowbars
and axes.
A resident said while some wore
masks, others did not hide their faces.
A resident, Solomon, said he was
attacked with a cutlass after the robbers thought he was hiding phones from
them.
He said, “They cut my leg with a
cutlass and beat me up, telling me to release the phones. I told them I did not
have any phone. I was admitted in the hospital for two days.”
On Ekimogun where the rape took
place, a resident said the incident happened around 2am.
He said, “There is a sports viewing
centre around here and some of us stay there. If we knew a robbery was going on
we could have done something.
“But those robbers sneaked in and
held those people hostage. The woman just moved into the house with her
husband. They got married less than a month ago.
“One of the robbers raped her. She
was taken to the hospital the next day for treatment.”
A community leader and Chairman,
Security Committee for Adio Community, Femi Emiko, said the robbers always fled
through the Oworonsoki Expressway, adding that the police were not using the
right technique to arrest them.
He said, “Actually, within one week,
they have visited Adio five times. They have turned this community to an ‘ATM
machine’ where they can withdraw money anytime they like.
“The police do come, but immediately
the robbers hear their siren, they run away. We have been having meetings to
see how to form vigilantes and fight these robbers. They are young guys and we
can win this fight.”
The Police Public Relations Officer,
Joe Offor, had yet to reply to a text message sent to his phone as of the time
of filing this report.
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