Not only do many residents of Bariga, a town in Shomolu Local Government Area of Lagos State, sleep with both eyes open, some rarely sleep. No thanks to night marauders who have turned the place into a game field. How long will this last?
As the sun sets, their hearts leap and throb, soaking them with tensions at fever pitch high. Their fear is but one. Soon, it would be night fall in Bariga, a town in Shomolu Local Government Area of Lagos State which is fast assuming notoriety in criminal activities.
And just as apartheid South African poet, Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali, in his “Night Fall in Soweto” growled that night fall “comes like a dreaded disease, seeping through the pores of a healthy body, and ravaging it beyond repair”, so are the residents of Bariga lamenting. In a save-our-soul chat with Saturday Mirror residents alleged that they are being terrorised daily by armed robbers who have been carrying out their nefarious activities with impunity.
One of the residents, Babajide Olatunji of Alhaji Ariyo Street, maintained that the menace of armed robbers and social miscreants in the area has reached a pandemic stage and requires the urgent attention of the state governor.
“Armed robbery in Bariga and other criminal activities that border on taking what belongs to someone else by force has become like a normal thing in this area. While we hear and witness some almost every week, what pains us most is that they have not been checked by security agents. I think with the rate of joblessness in the country, robbery in this area has increased beyond what we can bear. It has become almost a daily thing here.
We know that area boys don’t normally go into stealing and robbery in their area no matter what but we don’t know where these bad boys come from. We need the urgent attention of Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola to intervene and beef up security in this area.
We are also part of Lagos and we deserve better treatment. The governor is the Chief Security Officer of the state and it is his responsibility to act fast and save Bariga from the throes of armed robbers and miscreants,” Olatunji advised.
And for Akinwande Ojerinde, “we have come to terms with this and since we do not have the fire power to protect ourselves, we just leave everything to God. I was born and bred here and there is no amount of attack that would chase me away except if I make it big and choose on my own to leave.
The police need to wake up and do more”. Narrating his family’s ordeal in the hands of armed robbers, a victim who was recently macheted by robbers in the area, Pat Amajama, opined that the closeness of Bariga to the lagoon and the Third Mainland Bridge might have made it susceptible to hoodlums as they easily find escape routes after engaging their victims.
“The Third Mainland Bridge end of Bariga is prone to frequent attacks by armed robbers who have been terrorising the area for decades without being brought to book. For all of us who live close to the Third Mainland Bridge end of Bariga, it has been one robbery attack after another.
The worst thing is that the people have given up hope and faith in the police because they have been unable to secure us appropriately,” Amajama lamented. Continuing, he said that although he had heard stories of attacks and had paid sympathy visits to some victims. “There have been several noises of robberies and attacks in the area but it was on 15 March, 2013, about 4.50a.m. that I came face-to-face with one.
The first thing that startled me awake from a deep sleep was a heavy bang on the metal door, the entrance to my apartment. I think they hit it about three times, at the hinges and where the bolts are. As soon as I got up, I went straight for the bedroom door and bolted it.
They had entered the apartment by this time. They used a sledgehammer on the wooden door, leading to the sitting room, and tore it to pieces. They hit hard against the bedroom door, and pushed me over. I was pushing against them!
“And immediately they barged their way to me, they attacked me on my left knee. I went down on both knees. My wife, nursing our four months old baby would always be in a semi form of undress, in order to breastfeed the baby.
The little time I spent struggling with them, gave her time to put on some decency. We all knew there were robbers, only we did not know they were armed robbers, who meant serious business. “Where is the money?” they screamed at me.
I did not answer, but looked around to assess what weapons they had on them: a sledge hammer, a machete, a locally made pistol. Upon assessing the robbers, the man in Amajama made him to underestimate what the robbers could do, thinking that he could yell and attract the attention of “good neighbours” to his family rescue. “I screamed for help and the guy with the machete landed it on my head.”Where is the money!!” they screamed at me.
“I will give you what we have”, I managed to say. I touched my head were the machete had landed, and felt cold blood. I held unto it. I couldn’t get up because of the pains on my knee. They threatened even more, with the machete and hammer raised: “I will kill you and your son if you make any noise!” I was more frightened by the hammer than I was of the gun and machete put together. I thought to myself: If this hammer lands on any part of the body of any member of my family, he or she would either be dead or maimed forever.
My wife got up, gave them the money in our possession. “Where is the laptop, where are your phones?” the robbers raked further, asking for more. We gave them, or rather, they took them. The money was not enough.
They now wanted more money from my wife and sister. My wife sells recharge cards, and as she reached for the bag containing the cards and money, they seized it, emptied all the money and recharge cards she had in there.
When they came to my sister, after collecting her phone, she said to them, “I am a student, I don’t have money.” The fourth robber who was standing guard at the entrance said something to them in Yoruba language, and they hurriedly left. “As soon as they left, I rushed outside, and saw them leaving with my laptop, our phones, our money, and leaving me with a cut on the head. Our neighbours from across the low fence saw them.
When we eventually came out and were calling for help, we saw a police van, crawling through the street, coming from the same direction that the robbers had just left. We flashed a torch light and they stopped.
We explained what had happened to them, and the first thing they said was, “we got a distress call and had been searching for this street for over 30 minutes now”. “They took me in their van, and said we must first go to the station to get my statement documented. I went with them to the Ilaje Police Station. At the counter, they asked me few questions and referred me to the section where I could write a statement.
When I got there, the officer in charge said the IPO was not available, so I should go to the hospital and come back later. I was grateful that I was released to go get some treatment. “At the hospital, I got seven stitches on my head.
When I got back to the Police Station in company of my landlord who had been with me right from the house when the police came, the same police inspector said he could not find the book where I was to write my statement. He now gave me a form to go to Gbagada General Hospital.
I said to him “I just came from the hospital where I had received treatment and given medications, why do I need to go to Gbagada General Hospital? He told me that he was doing what is acceptable: they don’t patronise private hospitals; it has to be a government hospital, for their documentation purposes,” Amajama narrated.
Having been told by a neighbour how the bandits identified his apartment and went straight for him, Amajama wondered why he was the prime target in a three apartment bungalow where he is the only tenant. “A neighbour informed me that the robbers had been looking for my apartment, arguing amongst themselves until an informant had to come and point out the door before hurrying away.
According to that particular neighbour, he thought they were bringing something to me and wanted to be sure on what door to knock. This information really is what gives me concern. I live in a three apartment bungalow. I am the only tenant in this building. I occupy the middle apartment – the landlord occupies the first while his mother occupies the third apartment,” he said.
He however noted that the fateful night, the dreaded nightfall in Bariga did not seep through his apartment only. “On that that same night, robbers attacked three houses including a church on Olowolagba Street and wounded one man because he screamed for help.
I want to use this medium to draw the attention of all security agencies concerned to the plights of the residents of Bariga. They should please do something about the menace of armed robbery in Bariga,” Amajama lamented. Their encounter with the robbers was so traumatic that his wife took ill soon after.
“My wife took ill immediately and was diagnosed of typhoid. I knew it was more of the shock of seeing her husband being threatened with death in the presence of his sister and children. For over one week we could not sleep; any noise in the neighbourhood enveloped us with fears and apprehension.
“I remain eternally grateful to God who neither sleeps nor slumber. I thank God that it was not worse that it was.” Also commenting, on the precarious state of security in Bariga, Chizoba, a shop owner, said that criminality in the “area is gradually becoming part of life. Our security is in the hands of God and we look up to Him only everyday for guidance and protection.
I don’t just want to speak much on the ability of the police to protect us. We see their patrol vans passing by our streets and I cannot really say if they need more vans, more personnel, more gadgets and more will power to deal with criminals in this area and other places, or I think that they know better than we do.
Sometimes, we may not blame the poor police men in the patrol vans or on the streets but the high command which probably have failed to give them the needed morale to do their job. But honestly, the rate of robbery has increased so much, more than it was two years ago”.
Nevertheless, all efforts to get the Police Public Relations Officer, Lagos State Police Command, to comment on the preparedness of the force to arrest the spate of robbery in the area and protect residents from attacks, was unsuccessful as she was said to be official engaged in a function.
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