Armed Robbers Invade Ofada

Residents of Ofada village in Ogun State, southwest Nigeria, can no longer sleep  soundly as they are daily terrorised by armed robbers. In the last few months, the  entire village has been living in fear.

During one of their recent attacks, several  people were beaten up and maimed. Those  seriously injured are still undergoing treatment in various hospitals, while  properties worth millions of naira were carted away by the hoodlums.

The first armed robbery incident occurred last year, when some boys stole tyres.  Unfortunately for them, they were apprehended and handed over to the police who are  still investigating the matter. Since then, it has been one case of armed robbery  attack or the other.

The armed robbers normally come into the community through Mowe from the  Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, and they escape through the same route.

Confirming the attacks by the men of the underworld, the baale (traditional ruler)  of Ofada, Chief Rabiu Adewunmi said the rate at which they confidently invade the  village has become alarming and if nothing is done to curtail their excesses, they  may one day start killing people. He said the way the robbers go about their  operations, combing the entire village, proves that they have really mastered their  game.

On the provision of security in the village, the baale said they have night security  guards, but they are not allowed by the law to carry firearms and they are too few  to stop the armed robbers.

Speaking on the measures the Landlords/Residents Association have taken to curb the  menace, the secretary to the Baale-in-Council, Alhaji Suleiman Adebayo said they  have met with the DPO of Obafemi/Owode Police Station, which controls Ofada.

According to him, the provision of police patrol, a police post and police station  among others, are some immediate measures that would curtail the situation. The  secretary further said that a portion of land has been carved out for the police  post and this has been shown to the officers of Obafemi/Owode Police Station. The  DPO said a letter to that effect had been sent to the Area Command, to be forwarded  to the Inspector-General of Police in Abuja, through the state command.

On what the state and local governments have done about the situation, Adebayo  lamented that up till now, no measure has been taken by the two tiers of government  under which Ofada falls, though they are kept abreast of issues concerning the  community.

According to him, the police station at Obafemi/Owode is too far from their  immediate environment, adding that on most occasions, the robbers would have  finished operating before the arrival of the police.

Speaking on Police patrols, the secretary said the police patrol the area, but  unfortunately each time the armed robbers operate, the policemen are not always  available. He added that they would be meeting with the police next week on the  provision of a temporary post before a police station is built.

On whether they suspect that the police had foreknowledge of the armed robbery  attacks, because every time the bandits operated, the police were always not around,  the secretary said in Yoruba language, a le so, meaning he could not confirm.

Suleiman: “The attacks have become routine and none of the criminals has been  apprehended by the police. They have robbed so many residents of Ofada.

“On a particular occasion, they broke into a shop through a hole they dug under the  fence to gain entry into a compound and robbed a woman of valuables that include  expensive clothing, shoes, jewellery and wrist watches.

“Another victim was robbed by these criminals three times within a few of months,  carting away expensive cars on each of the occasions.”

Tracing the genesis of the problem in the village, Suleiman said it dated back to  the land tussle between the real owners of the land and omo onile (land speculators  and land grabbers).

He said when the omo onile could no longer grab land from the indigenes or harass  and collect ransom from landlords, they started to foment trouble in the community.

Speaking on the link between the omo onile and the armed robbers, the secretary said  he could not categorically say that the group morphed into armed robbers, but he is  sure that trouble began in the village with the invasion of the omo onile from  Lagos.

On the steps the community has taken to get rid of the land grabbers, he said their  case is under investigation by the police. Suleiman alleged that a half-caste from  Ofada, whose grandmother and father are from the community, is the brain behind the  turbulent land disputes in Ofada, and that the case is in Ishabo High Court III,  Abeokuta, Ogun State.

He also alleged that until the man brought in the land grabbers from Lagos, there  was peace in the village.

He stated that there was no trouble per se with the group, but that their excesses  had become unbearable.

“The local government is aware, Elewe-Eran Police Command is aware; we even wrote a  petition to the Ogun State Governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel but up till now, no  concrete solution has been provided,” he further said.

Narrating his ordeal to P.M.NEWS, one of the residents, Mr. Johnson (real names  withheld) said robbers broke into his house on a Sunday morning at about 7 a.m while  he and members of his family were in the church.

According to Johnson, when he came back from church, he discovered that the iron  rods protecting his kitchen window had been removed.

When he went in, he discovered that some of his valuables, worth over N100,000  had  been carted away.

Condemning the way the robbers had operated in the community without resistance,  Johnson said he was perplexed that nothing had been done to address the situation.

He added that the community’s vigilance group and the OPC do not extend their  operations to his area, making the residents prone to armed robbery attacks. This is  why some of the wealthier residents have engaged the services of personal security  guards, though their poorer neighbours cannot afford the same.

According to him, when they struck recently, they robbed one of his friends of his  Toyota Camry car, home appliances and other valuables.

“To my greatest surprise, all the police could do was to take photo shots of the  scene and thereafter sent in a patrol team after the robbers had left,” Johnson  lamented.

The robbers, he said, combed the whole of his locality that same night, moving from  house to house and in most cases, climbing over the fence and even cutting the  barbed wire to gain entry into some of the buildings.

Alleging that the land grabbers were the major suspects, Johnson was, however,  surprised that no indigene has so far been robbed and that none of the robbers has  been apprehended.

He suggested that they should look inwards for the culprits, and that the robbers  live within the community.

Counting his losses, another victim who did not want his name mentioned, stated that  he had been robbed three times, during which he lost two SUVs, other cars and  valuables like LCD TV, DVD player, DStv and decoder, three laptop computers,  camcorder, about seven telephones, clothing, wrist watches and N200,000 cash.

His driver was shot in one of the attacks, while his security guard was seriously  injured with a cutlass in another attack, leaving both in a state of  unconsciousness.

“My guard and driver were in coma for weeks.They actually thought my security man  was dead; maybe because they thought he might be able to identify them,” he stated.

He added that they were very confident during the operation, and held one of his  neighbours hostage between the hours of 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. before scaling the barbed  wire fence and jumping into his own compound. They were in his residence for more  than two hours, though he had alerted one of his friends who had called the police  as at 1 a.m. when the robbers arrived.

When the police arrived after 3 a.m. they fired a shot into the air, alerting the  armed robbers, who immediately fled.

“It was after the departure of the robbers that the police came and started asking:  ‘Wey dem? Wey dem?’. You see, from Obafemi/Owode Police Station to Ofada on a good  day the journey is not more than 30 minutes but the police spent hours and when they  came, they said they passed through an alternative route,” he further added.

The victim added that during two of the attacks, the robbers drove him to Papalanto,  a distance of about 50 kilometres, before they released him, threatening to kill him  if he does not deactivated all the security devices in his SUVs.

In spite of the bad road between Mowe/Ofada, he stated that robbers snatch cars on a  regular basis.

He affirmed that Governor Gbenga Daniel passed through the road to Redeemed Camp a  few weeks ago. So, “he cannot deny that he is not aware of the state of the road.  Again, the Speaker of Ogun State House of Assembly, Hon. Egbetokun is also from  Obafemi/Owode Local Government Area. So, I see no reason for not putting the road in  order”.

He further suggested the urgent need for the police to raid the jobless land  grabbers, saying that they could be responsible for the problem of the once  promising Ofada community.

Another victim, Otunba Samuel, said he is now battle-ready for the robbers and that  no one makes a mistake twice, confirming that he has strengthened his security, both  internally and externally.

A concerned resident simply called Femi did not hesitate to indict the police.

“Either the police are the chief suspects or they aid the robbers. How on earth  could it take the police more than two hours to arrive at the Ofada armed robbery  scene, a journey of about 30 minutes? For God’s sake, they were alerted at 1 a.m.  but did not arrive until after 3 a.m. after the robbers had informed them that they  were through,” he said.

Narrating their encounter with the men of the underworld to P.M.NEWS reporters,  three of the victims, a driver and two security guards all agreed that the robbers  were very fierce.

According to Koffi Addum, a Ghanaian and one of the security men, the robbers had  come to survey the area the previous day. The Ghanaian lamented that N2,000 was  collected from him after he was beaten up and his hand injured.

Another victim, a security officer who pleaded anonymity, said he had to be taken to  his home town in the far north where he received treatment for months. Showing the  reporters his scars, the victim thanked God for the life of his boss, who did  everything humanly possible to revive him, otherwise, “I would have been forgotten  by now, though my money, about N37,000 was stolen”.

Another victim, whose husband was not around during the robbery incident, Mrs. John  Omorose, said they lost all that they had acquired in their life time, including  cars and N5,000 to the robbers, but thanked God that no life was lost despite the  fact that she was beaten and locked up in one of the rooms in the house.

“When I saw them, I initially thought they were CID officials because they were in  mufti and carried guns. But I soon realised they were not CID officials from their  actions.

“They marched me and about eight passer-by and our security man into one of the  rooms in my husband’s house. They ransacked the whole house, took most of our  valuables like computers, wrist watches, telephones and television sets including  one of our cars, a Toyota Camry with which they carted away the goods,” said Mrs.  Omorose.

She was, however, surprised that the police have stopped patrolling the area and  that up till now, nothing has been done to prevent further attacks.

The victim, a businesswoman, debunked the notion that it was the land grabbers who  rob people. She said the omo onile are well known in the community and that they  normally patronise her when they were still around.

On whether a faction of the omo onile may have a link with the armed robbery  attacks, Mrs. Omorose said she does not know anything about that, and that the  robbers’ faces were not familiar to her at all.

The DPO of Obafemi/Owode Police Station, Mr. Gbola Adigun, a Superintendent of  Police, stated that investigation is still going on and that all hands are on deck  towards arresting the culprits within the shortest possible time. He added that the  case has been forwarded to the state police command at Elewe-Eran in Abeokuta, Ogun  State. The DPO also debunked Mrs. Omorose’s notion that the police only patrolled  for two weeks, stating that the community felt  police presence for more than four  weeks, “after all, Ofada residents are not the only people the Obafemi/Owode  policemen will protect. We have to spread our tentacles across the length and  breadth of the local government area to combat crime in all ramifications,” said the  police officer.

—Dedeigbo Ayodeji & Hakeem Jimoh

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