BEWARE: Robbers’ new method of operation on Third Mainland Bridge

The Third Mainland BridgeDespite all efforts of the Lagos State Police Command to reduce the activities of criminals in the state, armed robbers daily devise new means of dispossessing Lagosians who use the Third Mainland Bridge of their belongings, as Dele Ayeleso reports.

It is an established fact that there is a correlation between the influx of different people into Lagos State in the name of searching for a greener pasture and the high rate of crime, culminating in different methods being adopted in perpetrating evil on innocent citizens majorly to rob them of their belongings.

At different times, men of the Nigeria Police Force and all concerned groups and individuals, who had either fallen victims of these hoodlums or had a relation that was fortunate to come back and tell the story, have revealed several methods which these men of underworld employ to rob their victims.

At a time in Lagos State, every Sunday in churches, at least one person must give a testimony of how his life was spared after being robbed of his belongings worth several millions of naira or how money meant for a particular business was forcefully taken by armed young guys. Till now, testimonies of such are not scarce in the church but with different methods employed on different persons who had fallen into the criminals’ hands.

While speaking with the newsmen during a parade recently, Adewale, one of the suspected armed robbers told newsmen that he only played on the intelligence of his victims, knowing fully well that Nigerians are always scared when faced with any object that looks like a gun. According to him, he had used toy gun to rob a lot of Lagosians.

It would be recalled that during the regime of Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu as the governor of Lagos state, he was forced to ban okada riders from operating beyond 7 p.m. so as to reduce the rate of crime being perpetrated with motorcycles at night. In fact, a lady, Sherifat Rasheed would never forget her experience with an Okada rider who snatched her bag containing all the profit she had made for the day when she was returning home in company with her mother on a particular day.

Armed robbers attacking motorists on the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos have devised a new technique to attract their victims. The new system involves feigning of an accident to attract other motorists' sympathy. Usually, the robbers would park a rickety car in the middle of the road. Such cars normally have their windshields deliberately broken.

This would be done to create a false scene of an auto crash, and about 10 metres away from the vehicle, one or two persons would be seen pretending to have been seriously injured in the accident.

Investigation showed that there could be more persons around the feigned accident scene, but all of them would not appear in order not to arouse suspicion. Any motorist who stops to render assistance automatically becomes a victim. If his car is not snatched, every valuable item in the vehicle would be taken at gunpoint.

Recently, on a Friday, at about 9.30p.m., one of such incidents occurred on the bridge. This involved four suspects. The robbers drove a car to a point on the bridge and made it look as if it was involved in a lone accident. Two of the robbers were said to be moving to and fro with great anxiety to suggest that they needed help.

Unfortunately, all the vehicles that passed them did not stop, apparently suspecting the men. The robbers however ran out of luck when a police patrol team drove to the scene.

The policemen reportedly stopped to inquire what was wrong with the men and immediately the robbers discovered that the vehicle that stopped belonged to the police, two of them fled.

The other two were not so lucky. They were arrested. During a search on them, two locally-made guns were recovered from them. One of the suspects gave his name as Sheriff Ibrahim of 25, Jamiu Street, Bariga, Lagos, while the other identified himself as Azeez Jogunomi. Besides, it was gathered that one of the suspects had a big wound on his leg and during interrogation, it was discovered that it was a bullet wound. Spokesman for the Lagos State Police Command, Mr. Frank Mba, confirmed that it was the latest technique employed by bandits.

In the recent past, the robbers' main method of robbing on the bridge was to exploit traffic bottlenecks to attack their victims who could not easily speed away.