Teenage Robbers Terrorize Families, Rapes Newly-wed in Lagos Community

 

Families residing in certain areas of  Bariga in Lagos state have reportedly deserted their homes due to repeated attacks by armed robbers. The areas invaded are Adio, Ekimogun and Kehinde Lane.

According to Punch Metro, 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 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 cum 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.

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.”

 

“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.