Chaos on the Long Bridge

It was about 7:30pm. The orderly queues of vehicles moving towards Magboro stopped for not more than 5 minutes on the Long Bridge inside the demarcation created by Julius Berger on Thursday. We were still wondering whether a car broke down again when the evil boys sprang out from nowhere.

They started with a commercial bus, stabbed the driver in the rib and yanked off a woman’s hand bag. The woman reportedly slumped probably out of shock. People shouted ‘won ti pa o’. Motorists scrambled out of their vehicles and fled in various directions. A boy of probably 7 years stood by their family car, shouting to his fleeing mother ‘I cannot leave my daddy’. His father probably couldn’t run or didn’t want to run. I’m not sure which.

I made frantic calls for help to the police and to someone who I believed had their special password. I was assured they would be there shortly. But I, like the rest of the teriffied people on the bridge knew that the job of keeping ourselves from being killed or hurt was exclusively ours in the interim.

With no help in sight, some motorists who had apparently been experiencing such on the road came out with cutlasses, axes, and other hideous weapons etc. Sheer terror was unleashed. No one was sure who the robber was and who the vigilantes were. Utter bedlam in pitch darkness. The Long Bridge falls under Ogun State which, quite frankly has no wish to be like Lagos when it grows up

Somehow, the sight of some motorists emerging with crude assault implements proved intimidating for the robbers. They cut short their operation and jumped into the bush with their small loot. People rushed back to reclaim their vehicles. A woman was heard shrieking: ‘Omo mi da?’ (Where’s my child?). Apparently, mother and child had fled in opposite directions when chaos descended.

It’s not the first time. It will still probably happen tonight and tomorrow night and the night after that, to different sets of terrified citizens.

For how long will this continue? Should it get to a stage that people will begin to get illegal guns to protect themselves on the Long Bridge before the authorities will take action?

Lagos robbers seem to be bouncing back

The damaged APC and the bullet-ridden security house
Image: Punch

It would seem the robbers are getting their rhythm back in Lagos. The police would have to redouble their efforts to chase them out again.

The Punch reported today that robbers struck in three different places in the past three days. Two policemen were reportedly killed by armed robbers in the Ejigbo and Orile Iganmu areas of Lagos State on Sunday.

The robbers killed a police inspector in Ejigbo while a corporal was killed in Orile Iganmu in the separate incidents. Three other policemen were injured in the attack in Orile-Iganmu.

The most daring was the one at Regal Seaview Estate, Lekki, Lagos, where robbers reportedly ransacked houses for about an hour.

It was learnt that the robbers, numbering over 20, besieged the estate at about 12:25am in four vehicles.

Eyewitnesses said the robbers, who drove into the estate in a Honda, Toyota Sienna mini-bus, a black Prado jeep and a Hilux van, were armed with various sophisticated weapons.

It was learnt that some of the robbers mounted roadblocks at Elf Junction and Ikate Roundabout, which serve as access routes into the community while the operation lasted.

One of the security guards attached to the estate, who identified himself simply as Emmanuel, said the attack seemed like a war.

He said no sooner had he opened the gate for a resident than the robbers, who had already taken position in the area, took control of the gate from him and gained entry.

He said, “Four of the robbers came down from the vehicles and flung the gate open. They subsequently drove the vehicles into the estate and seized me. The other guard who was manning the gate with me abandoned the duty post and ran into the estate.

“They asked if there were riot policemen in the estate and directed me to point at houses occupied by rich men. When I declined to tell them, two of them who were asked to stay with me beat me mercilessly and hit me with gun butts and also threatened to kill me.”

He said the robbers then moved from house to house before policemen attached to the residence of a retired Deputy Inspector General of Police in the area tried to resist them but were later overpowered by the bandits.

PUNCH Metro learnt that the policemen attached to the DIG’s residence quickly radioed Maroko Police Division and the Rapid Response Squad for reinforcement.

It was gathered that policemen in six vans and an Armoured Personnel Carrier were deployed in the estate. However, the robbers who had got wind of the development started shooting sporadically into different directions.

A resident, Ifeanyi Eze, said an attempt by the policemen to block the entrance of the gate with the APC was rebuffed by the robbers.

He said, “The fatalities would have been much if not that the policemen in the other six vehicles stayed behind and allowed the APC to attack first. The APC came under intense fire.

“The policemen exchanged gunfire with them but this didn’t have much effect as they were not given the chance to strategise and forge a coordinated attack. As a result of this, they had to turn back and flee the scene. This gave the robbers the leeway to escape with their loot.”

“The windscreen of the APC marked RRS 287 LA was riddled with bullets and was said to have developed a major fault as a result of the incident.

One of the victims described the guns wielded by the bandits as “standard military issued weapons” which are unconventional. He said the robbers fired about a thousand times while the incident lasted.

He said, “They were five in number in our house and were fully armed; they immediately marched me and my mother to her room and started ransacking everywhere.

‘’When we could not give them the American dollars they asked for, they made away with three laptops, my mum’s jewellery and, unfortunately, her wedding ring.”

Lagos robberies: Three suspects in police net

The robbery suspects. Image: The Punch

Three armed robbery suspects who police claimed belong to the gang that terrorised Lagos on September 9 have been arrested. They are Uche Okeagbu, Emmanuel Ezeani and Chinonso Nwuangwu.

The suspects were arrested at their Ajangbadi hideout on September 23 following a tip-off.

Police said the suspects were members of a much larger group, which had about three weeks ago, carried out simultaneous robberies in Gbagada, Agege, Anthony, Ojodu, Itire, Ikeja and Ilasamaja areas of the state.

It was learnt that after 23-year-old Okeagbu was arrested, his confession  led to the recovery of a large cache of ammunition, one rocket propel grenade launcher, 225 AK 47 magazines fully-loaded, over 10,000 rounds of AK 47 live ammunition, two general purpose machine guns, 260 rounds of GPMG live ammunition, five dynamite with detonator and nine AK 47 rifles.

A self employed oil dealer before his foray into armed robbery, Okeagbu told PUNCH METRO that he was once based in Port Harcourt. He said he was introduced into the gang by a friend, and had since taken part in four operations in Ibadan ,and one each in Uyo Share, Kwara State and Lagos, where he got N100,000. All the operations happened this year.

A SARS team led by, Mr. Abba Kyari, found the gang’s armoury in two Volkswagen buses with registration numbers LSD 467 AR and AGL 506 XB, parked at Okeagbu’s residence at Ajangbadi.

Also, Nwuangwu said he took part in four robbery operations at Diamond Bank, Akure, in Ondo State, UBA, Osogbo in Osun State, GTB Okene, in Kogi State and Skyebank, Auchi, in Edo State.

The 23year-old said, “I was merely the driver of the vehicles. I just drove them to whereever they had an operation. I used to be an oil dealer in Port Harcourt before I joined the gang but I have stopped going with them for operations for a while now.”

The Commissioner of Police, Mr. Umar Manko, said the suspects were members of the gang that terrorised Lagos about three weeks ago.

He said the gang stormed Ilorin next, where they robbed a bank and attacked a police station.  He also said a Toyota Camry fitted with sensors and camera was recovered from the gang. The car, according to him enabled the robbers to monitor what was going on behind them.

Cruel robbers rape woman and wiped her family out

The robbers

These three men forcefully entered a home in SA, killed a man and his wife and drowned their 12-year old son in hot water.  South Africa is reeling from the unbelievable level of callousness displayed by the three men, who have admitted to the heinous crimes.

Three men broke into the family's home in Walkerville, Johannesburg, where they assaulted and shot dead Tony Viana, 53, and brutally raped and killed his wife, Geraldine.

They then tied up and gagged the sobbing boy, Amaro, and pushed him into a bath of boiling hot water to drown him, 'because he would be able to identify them'.

According to Sowetan, the culprits are the family’s gardener, Patrick Petrus Radebe, 24, their domestic servant’s son, Sipho Mbele, 21, who pleaded guilty to three charges of murder and one charge of rape each, and David Motaung, 20, who pleaded guilty on Tuesday to robbery charges.

They then left the South African court and walked back their cells laughing, according to Beeld newspaper. The family dog was killed by having his stomach cut open.

The men’s lawyer told Vereeniging Regional Court that they had broken into the house to steal and to get revenge for the way they had been treated by 42-year-old Mrs Viana, their employer.

The court heard that Mr Viana arrived home at the house to be attacked with a golf club and a machete-like 'panga' and ordered to open the family's safe.

When clear-cut cases like this happen, one wonders what the point of a trial is. Since they have pleaded guilty, why can't they just be put down like animals that they are?

How Sun Editor was shot

Suspected dare-devil armed robbers, yesterday, shot the Daily Sun editor, Mr Steve Nwosu in Lagos.
LEADERSHIP learnt that Mr. Nwosu, who went to withdraw some money from a Zenith Bank Branch in Maza-maza, near FESTAC town, may have been trailed to the bank by the robbers. He was said to have made the withdrawal and was about leaving the banking hall when the robbers confronted him.
The robbers were said to have aimed and shot at his head but narrowly missed their target as the bullet was said to have brushed through the side of his head near his eyes. The robbers made away with the money he withdrew from the bank.
Nwosu was said to have been rushed to the hospital where he is responding to treatment.
When LEADERSHIP contacted the spokesperson of the Lagos State police command, Ngozi Braide, she confirmed the incident and said that the police were already investigating it.
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